Closed For the Season

Closed for the season was definitely the theme for today. Whether it was a restaurant, a store, tourist activities, and even roads, we saw our fair share of these signs. We got an early start out this morning to go to Thunder Hole in Acadia National Park. It’s an inlet in the rocks where the waves crash loud like thunder and splash really high. The road through the park was a one way loop but only a small section was open to cars, the rest was closed for the season. Our first stop was a view of Egg Rock, a small island with a lighthouse.

They say it’s best to go to Thunder Hole right before high tide. High tide was 8:30 and we got there before 8. Sadly, the tide coming in wasn’t strong/high enough to cause the thundering. It was neat to watch anyways. There is a platform that goes right down there by it but it was “closed for the season”. I may or may not have ignored one of those signs to get a slightly better view.

The views all around this area were beautiful. We were so glad that we had our micro spikes for our shoes. There was lots and lots of ice.

After walking along the coast for a short bit we decided to move along. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much in the park we could see because most of it is closed for the season but the scenery was beautiful. We did get to experience a first while we were here. The parking lot for Thunder Hole was cleared of snow but had become basically a solid sheet of ice. No big deal, we were able to make it up the hill and park safely. BUT…what goes up, must come down. While we were walking up the ice covered hill to the parking lot and raving about how nice it was to have spikes, we both simultaneously realized how getting the car down was going to be a challenge. We got in the car and proceeded to the top of the hill down. We started down the hill at a snails pace and then in the blink of an eye, we were sideways and going down a little faster than a snail and came to a stop against a snow bank. We hoped there were no cars coming along the road and finished our decent down. We made it down sideways and unharmed. Talk about getting your adrenaline pumping in the morning. I wish I had thought to get a picture of the icy hill.

Next stop, Bass Harbor Lighthouse.

After this we went back to the lookout over Egg Rock and enjoyed a picnic lunch with a view before we went into Bar Harbor. These are some pictures from our drive around.

We went into Bar Harbor and decided to walk around. Most everything in the town was closed for the season but we wanted to look around anyways.

We walked down to Bar Island which has a land bar that is exposed at low tide so you can walk or drive over to the island. Lucky for us, the tide was heading out and we were able to walk all the way across to Bar Island. There is a 1 mile trail on the island but we did not attempt to walk it because we didn’t bring our spikes and the path was covered in ice. There are pictures of people who have parked their cars on the bar and not made it back to them before the tide comes back in. There are signs both in Bar Harbor and on Bar Island with a phone number of a water taxi and the National Park Dispatch in case you get stranded.

Looking towards Bar Island
Looking back to Bar Harbor

We decided to go ahead and head back to Bangor for the night. When I was looking for things to do/see in the area, the Paul Bunyan statue always came up. So we went to see it.

Another thing that was on all the lists of must sees was Stephen King’s House. So, we went to check it out. The gate was so creepy! Not sure who the white house next to it belongs to, but we took a picture because it had a creepy tree in the front yard.

Some other sights around Bangor.

It was cold, but the sun was shining beautifully and we had a great day!