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The drive to Acadia National Park from our class in Biddeford, Maine was rainy and mostly freeway so nothing to write about. The one thing that I noticed was the temperature plummeted! No more shorts for mommy! This stop will make the half way point for us on our journey and we are as far away from San Diego that we will go! We have traveled 5 weeks, 4682 miles and spent $1679. in gas so far and $523. in campgrounds. We share that with you in case you are planning to do a similar trip! We feel so blessed to be in Maine. We have had a safe and incredible journey so far and we still have 5 more weeks to go! We hope that we are inspiring you to get your pup and go travel! As you can see from all of our posts, this country is so beautiful and there is so much to see! This is going to be a long post so hang in there, lots to do in Acadia National Park!
We found a campsite on the Go Pet Friendly website called Hadley’s Point Campground. It was a few miles west of Acadia so we stopped there. Super nice people and a super nice and huge campground! It was pouring and mommy had laundry to do so we found an end spot in the grass (#17) near the laundry and parked Spirit.
The campground was perfect for us. It has WI-FII so mommy could get her work done, a laundry so we can get clean towels because they are getting pretty nasty from me swimming and getting them all dirty and it was a nice campground to take a walk in when it stopped raining. We noticed that there was a guy and his dog staying in a tent near us. We felt bad for them because he had his stuff all over the picnic table and it was getting all wet. He wasn’t “home” when we walked past or we would have had him come hang out with us for a while. We like meeting new people!
We woke up the next morning and it was POURING down rain! Man, I don’t ever think I heard it rain so hard. Definitely not in San Diego! It was cold too! The heater in Spirit kept coming on! We decided THIS was the day to sleep in!
It never stopped raining so we decided to take a drive to Bar Harbor. Mommy had to get a lobster roll or she would never hear the end of it from her friends. We walked around the town in the rain and asked everyone in every shop that we went into who had the best lobster rolls and everyone gave us a different answer! We finally decided on a little deli because the guy inside was nice to me and gave me a biscuit! Mommy said the roll was good & loaded with lobster. Bar Harbor is like any other tourist town except the view is incredible, even in the rain!
Time to go check out Acadia National Park. We were a little limited where we could go in Acadia because a few of the bridges were not tall enough for Spirit, but that is ok, we did A LOT!
Our first stop was Sieur De Monts. We hiked up Dorr Mountain in the rain. There is no reason you can’t get out and do fun stuff when it is raining. The saying goes, “there is no bad weather, only bad clothes” or something like that and even though it doesn’t apply to dogs, it kind of does cause if our human won’t take us, we can’t go!
The hike up Dorr Mountain was loaded with rock steps! I bet there were 300 of them. Our friend, Cathy, told us about this hike and we think she was getting mommy back for making her do so many training hills in San Diego! It was a really cool hike and the best part was on the way back down, it cleared up and we got a SUPER view of the harbor. That was a BONUS! Check out the photos HERE!
We drove to the end of the park. We saw Seal Beach and I wasn’t even allowed on it. Bummer! We headed over to Northeast Harbor and checked out all of the lobster boats. This National Park is kind of weird, there are many entrances to the park from the road and there are no gates to go through but you do have to have a park pass in your window or you will probably get in trouble if you are hiking in the park.
The next day it was pouring again and we had more laundry to do, clothes this time, so we headed back to the laundry. This was the place to be this morning. We met the owner and he was telling us stories about his Pitbull and guess who else we met? We met the guy and his dog that are staying in the tent! Guess what else? The guy is blind! Sean and Libra are a team. Sean went completely blind at the beginning of this year. He has very little “light” sight. He is going through a tough time. A divorce, no job and no place to live, so mommy and I hung out with him and Libra for a few hours in the laundry. It was warm and dry in there. Mommy read him some poems that he had written that he hadn’t read in a long time and we just listened to his stories. MAN! It makes you think how your life would change if you suddenly went blind. Sean was a super nice guy. He has two little girls and wants to show them that you should never give up, no matter what! He gave mommy a little driftwood / sea glass ornament that he made. He also told us some hikes to go on since he grew up in the area. We gave him some KIND bars and some One Dog Organic Dog treats for Libra and a little cash to help him out. We were sad to leave him, but he said he was going to go look at a apartment so hopefully that will be a new start for him. We hope so!
Sean told us to go to Bubble Rock so that is where we went. He said they used to party up there when they were kids. It was a nice hike up. There was a cute family up at the top and the kids were trying to push the huge boulder over the cliff. We haven’t seen many people on the hikes!
We went down a different way, great view of the lake and a boulder garden trail on the way down. The hikes here are anything but normal! You never know what you are going to get! Jordan lake was at the bottom and I couldn’t resist, I had to take one little swim! Yep! It was freezing so we ran a little on the lake loop to warm up! The hike back to the car from the lake was up a stream and very pretty through the trees. Mommy could walk in the stream with me because she was hiking in her fancy rain boots!
We had to take a break and warm up in the RV. I got dried off and then God forbid we take a break when there are more hikes to do. Mommy tries to do as much as she can everywhere we go just in case she never comes back and that is why we don’t bring daddy cause he can’t keep up. Not me! I am always ready to go!
We stopped at Jordan Pond House. They are known for their afternoon tea time with homemade popovers. We didn’t get there until after 5 p.m. so they were closed. We headed up Penobscot Trail. OMG!! We thought that the other trails were a challenge! This one was really crazy! Mommy had to lift me up very high rocks. There were railings and handholds and it was really steep. Don’t go on this one if you are a beginner hiker and/ or you have a big dog!
After that chaos, the trail turned pretty normal. Near the top it was all steep slate. Thank goodness it was well marked with blue paint markers and cairns or else we would have had no idea where to go and there wasn’t anyone else on this trail. It seemed like we were walking up that slate forever. It was really cool; it looked like someone splattered paint on it. But, it was wet and very cold on my paws.
Mommy didn’t bring my booties so she picked me up a few times to keep my feet out of the water. We finally arrived at the top and it was FREEZING!! Mommy’s phone froze and turned off after we took the photo at the top. So guess what? We took the wrong trail back down the slate! Mommy got a little nervous when she realized we were going the wrong way. Good thing she had her trail map. Don’t worry; it ended up working out better as things often do! We didn’t have to go back down that crazy rocky beginning section. We ended up on a “normal” trail and then on the flat carriage road that overlooked the lake and since it was getting dark, that was much better! When we got back to the beginning we saw a couple at the trailhead and they couldn’t believe we went up the rocky part and mommy was in her rubber rain boots! Don’t underestimate us! Time for some HEAT! We were wet and freezing! To see all of the hike photos from today, please click our Facebook album HERE!
The next day we woke up to NO RAIN!! Yayy!! It was still cold but happy to be dry even though it hasn’t been too bad hiking in the rain. Its kind of fun! Today we took a drive down Sergeant Drive. Really pretty drive and we even saw a lobster boat in action!
Let’s see what today’s hike is going to bring! We headed over to Echo Lake because our friend said that I could swim there. It was a tad warmer today! Time to swim but first a hike! Sean told us to do Beech Mountain. We started up and it seemed like a normal hike until we got to the steel ladders! Can you believe it!? Mommy was cracking up! She had to pick me up and carry me up the ladders. There were 4 of them in total along the hike. It was so funny because as we got to the top there was a couple from New York there and she looked at us and pointed in the other direction and told us that way was easier! We like the adventure! Chatted with the couple at the top and then went down the “easier” way! There was nobody on the beach so mommy let me go swimming. I was so happy!
We are ready to move on from Acadia. It has been so fun and beautiful but its time to go. The Grand Finale was a drive up Cadillac Mountain, the highest mountain on the Atlantic Coast at 1580′. We tried to go the other day but it was so fogged in that we couldn’t see anything but today we could! OMG! It was beyond beautiful! The view was of all of the islands off of the coast and we got there right before sunset so that was cool too even though it was a tad cloudy. We walked all around and then sat in the RV and ate our dinner with a beautiful view! What a great ending to a fun visit to one of the only National Parks that allows dogs on the trails! Thank you Acadia!
Tonight we stayed in the Walmart in Ellsworth. It was only 30 minutes from Acadia and on our way out. We are now a part of the Walmart RV club! What will Camden Hills, Maine bring? We hear it is beautiful, I guess you will have to stay tuned to find out…
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