Maine (During a Pandemic), 2020
It’s hard to take a bad picture in Acadia (cell phone hanging out the window :)
1600 miles and eight nights. Also happened to be the longest outing in the van. Result? One of the best trips we’ve ever taken!
The goal was to spend three nights in Acadia National Park, test out all the van’s systems over the course of a longer trip, and wing everything else. The weather was amazing (60’s and 70’s, not a drop of rain), and everything functioned perfectly. Here’s a recap!
Day 1: Clocked out of our jobs and bombed across I-90 to stay with relatives in Massachusetts for the night. Got in late, so we chatted for a few and retired to our free parking spot for the evening.
Day 2: Had some great conversation and breakfast with the family. Departed late-morning for a leisurely 120-mile drive to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Felt obligated to make a pit stop at the NH Wine and Liquor outlet, then proceeded to Cisco Brewers for our first ever Harvest Hosts overnight stay. Munched on some pub food, sampled some craft beers, and chilled out in the van for the rest of the evening. Renny had tons of room to run, and it felt like a very safe location. More on Harvest Hosts in a separate post. (Hint… it’s a great deal!)
Day 3: We hit the road early and headed US-1 to York, ME. We have some family history in this cool coastal town, so we stopped at some sentimental locations, and bailed before the crowds got crazy. It was a Saturday morning, and as expected, the roads and parking spots were mobbed relatively quickly. Proceeded slowly up US-1, stopping frequently at some lighthouses, a state park, and ending up in Booth Bay for our second Harvest Hosts stay. Booth Bay Craft Brewers has quite a few RV parking spots, as well as a few set aside for Harvest Hosts members. We had some brick oven pizza, and headed to Booth Bay harbor for a sunset tour of the town. Walked around downtown enough to earn our dessert, and made the quick three mile drive back to the brewery for the night.
Day 4: Took off from Booth Bay and headed to Acadia. Stopped in Rockport harbor for lunch and a walking tour of the waterfront and proceeded to Bar Harbor. Quickly discovered that the weekend crowds had not yet dispersed, so we made quick drive across the island to check in at Somes Sound View Campground, where we would be staying for the next three nights. Got acclimated with our campground, then headed south to check out Echo lake. Picked up firewood on the way back, cooked dinner, and crashed for the evening.
Day 5: Headed South to Bass Harbor, checked out the lighthouse, stopped for van sandwiches, then headed to Echo lake for a few hours of stand up paddle boarding. Dried off (Renny dunked us, so we ended up swimming) and headed to Bar Harbor to get the pup a souvenir from Bark Harbor (a trip tradition), then headed back into the national park to for a walk down some of the historic carriage trails. Campfire and dinner followed in the evening.
Day 6: First off, the park loop is really cool, and is a must visit. Camera-worthy anywhere you look/drive. The only problem is when you get up before sunrise to beat the crowds to the road (which we did), there may be some morning fog obstructing some of the scenery (understatement). We saw what we could, checking out a bunch of empty pull-offs, but by 10:00am, the fog hadn’t lifted. Drove up Cadillac Mountain for some awesome above-fog views, regrouped, and headed across the island to windward side where the fog had already blown off. Stumbled on a cool harbor where we had lunch and enjoyed the ocean breeze. Proceeded to hike for a few hours, taking off from the flying mountain trailhead. It was perfect: not a ton of vertical, great views, and ended at a deserted beach. Renny loved it, swam like she’d been sleeping for days, and we hiked back out for a lobster dinner after a couple more stops at scenic spots near the southernmost end of Mt. Desert Island. It’d be very easy to spend multiple days just driving around from trailhead to scenic outlook, and had we been without pets, a bicycle is a must. There are tons of easy-riding carriage trails that are family friendly. Gotta get Renny a side-car…
Day 7: Woke up to clear skies and decided we couldn’t leave Acadia without trying the park loop again. Without a schedule to adhere to, we spent a couple hours retracing our steps from the prior day. A couple more visitors to work around, but well worth it. We had no accommodations planned for that evening, so we checked back in at Booth Bay Craft Brewers and they had an open spot for us. Proceeded to cruise back down the jagged coastline over course of the afternoon, stopping frequently, and ending up back in our parking spot from a few nights prior. Free accommodations can’t be beat!
Day 8: We now know why everyone says the Holy Donut in Portland must be visited. We bought two dozen, so they now have some new fans that reside in Massachusetts and Western NY! Limited ourselves to a donut-each, as to save room for seafood, and worked back down US-1. A long beach walk in Ogunquit (dogs off leash permitted when we were there), followed by picking up some live lobster, craft beers, salt water taffy and fudge for family and friends while driving back through York, ME. Everyone had cleared out of town since it was Sunday, so it felt like we had the place to ourselves. Jumped on the expressway and headed back to Mass for the night.
Day 9: Not much noteworthy here, just 300 miles due West to get back home. It should be mentioned though that had we not bought the live lobsters, we probably would have headed North into Vermont instead…
Acadia National Park exceeded all of our expectations. We absolutely loved the fact that this is a dog friendly National Park. If we were to do another trip to coastal Maine, we’d do it exactly the same way. More stops in towns and cities would be worked in the mix, but given the circumstances (covid), it couldn’t have gone better.