Acadia National Park Off Season

Bar Harbor, Maine

Over 2 million people visit Acadia National Park in a year; most come in the summer or for fall foliage. My photos from last week’s April break don’t just give an illusion of emptiness. Visit Acadia off season if you want to commune with nature in solitude and skip the entrance fee.

Otter Cliffs, Acadia National Park

Our first day was foggy with rain expected, so we kept to the coastal paths of Mt. Desert Island. You can actually see this view (above) from your car. Most visitors to Acadia don’t bother to step far beyond the Park Loop Road. They are missing a lot. The Rockefellers put in miles of carriage roads, perfect for mountain bikes or easy walking. I’ve heard that they are also great for cross country skiing.

Somes Sound from Mt. Acadia 

To escape the crowds and to get the best views,
climb a mountain.
The view from the bald peak of Acadia Mountain
is well worth the effort.
It is an effort.
My kids (above) are
not standing recklessly at the edge of a cliff.

Here's the trail (photo to left.)
This type of hiking is called scrambling.
Honestly, this is a teenager's idea of fun.
We encountered no one on this mountain, curiously!

Adjacent to Acadia Mountain is Mt. St. Sauveur.
It also has spectacular views without the scramble.
We hiked the two together in one day.
It was only 4 miles, but it took us 4 hours to do the loop trail.
Guess who slowed down the pace?
Other visits we’ve hiked Beech Mountain,
my favorite trail off the beaten path.
There are hikes for all abilities.

View from Mt. St. Sauveur of Greening, Sutton and the Cranberry Islands

After hiking, enjoy Bar Harbor. Ben and Bill’s Chocolate Emporium sells homemade fudge and ice cream, including lobster flavor. Eat pizza while watching a movie at  Reel Pizza. The newly opened Side Street Café has live music, cocktails and tasty veggie burgers and tapenade. For the more gourmet experience, try Mache Bistro, started by a former chef of Havana. Sadly, Havana with its delicious Cuban accented food is closed off season, like most of town. We stayed at the Graycote Inn, which is open year round and discounted off season. The innkeepers serve up a delicious two-course breakfast and homemade cookies with hot cider in the afternoon. Hiking builds an appetite!

Sherman's Book Store, established in 1886, is a must browse.

My vacation reading: Life of Pi by Yann Martel. If you are one of the few who haven't read this Man Booker Prize winning novel, it's about a 16-year-old boy stranded on a lifeboat with a tiger from his father's zoo. Pi must tame the tiger and his fear to survive. He turns to his knowledge of animals and his 3 faiths (Hinduism, Islam and Christianity!) My teenaged son loved it, but my tween daughter didn't. It was published as an adult book in 2001 and is often assigned at school. Adults would appreciate the philosophical nuances.

Life of Pi can be very gory, but I appreciated the realistic portrayal of animal behavior and respect for nature. Both Pi and the tiger are great characters and the writing is sublime. Critically, it didn't really hook me until the second part. Then it was hard to put down. Much of the backstory in the first part could have been woven in as flashbacks, but who am I to criticize a contemporary classic?

Closest to it: The Black Stallion by Walter Farley (a favorite from my childhood) and The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh (literary fiction, one of my favorites now.) 

Blog Watch: I've recently started following Steph Su Reads, written by a Swathmore College student who reviews young adult and middle grade literary fiction. Steph had a brilliant post on What's Missing in YA Lit? I'm encouraged because my YA novel covers a lot of that missing ground, although it isn't published yet. Author Beth Kephart encouraged Steph to submit this article to the NYT Books Section. It really is that good.