September 30, 2012 More rain in Acadia

It rain really hard most of the day. We went to Sieur De Mont springs. It is an area of Acadia that was burned in a fire in 1047. It burned down the spruce/fir forest for weeks and burned 10,000 acres. After the fire broad leaf trees. There is also  Acadia Wild Gardens, which is a garden of all of the native plants in Acadia and they are all labeled.

The gardens were flooded by all the rain. When we got there a ranger was just leaving on a nature walk, so we tagged along. The other brave couple chickened out when we came to this part of the trail where John is, with knee deep water.

A birch wigwam like the early native people lived in. The ranger says this thing is a fruiting head of some kind of fungus, growing on the side of a tree.

Waterfalls from the storm racing down the woodland and Dorr mountain.

The Sieur De Monts spring was in the middle of a rain lake and the rain water covered the spring. John is once again knee deep.  We decided to go to the Abbe museum. John thought stone age antiquities is an oxymoron.

The next stop was the marina for a lobster roll- had as much lobster at the ones we had to crack and peel in it.

A rain waterfall on the road back. Thick fog on the shoreline.

a rainwater bog on the way into the campground.

Sept 29, 2012 Rainy day in Acadia

It rained all day and was foggy. The colors are so beautiful during the rain. We started out checking out the beach.

The sunny sandy beach was totally different today. This building was first built in 1934 as a rangers residence, but now is a gift shop and museum.

The ocean finally had waves and looked like an ocean. Great crashing waves that shook the rocks we stood on.

Big sprays of waves up the cliffs. John in his caguole. It is the only thing that is really waterproof in this heavy rain, gortex is like a sieve.

A kind of suck hole in the waves and rocks. Poison ivy and asters

More poison ivy , asters and the pink granite, drops of rain on the pine trees.

Then we hiked up in the woods to the fog on the Southern Mt Cadillac trail. I thought the trail was paved, but the whole mountain is a huge hunk of granite, with just a skin of dirt. The trails were granite and tree roots.

A drop of water on a fir tree, a small waterfall

The fabulous view of the ocean straight down from the Eagles Crag is obscured by fog.

Pink granite lichens, grass and a mushroom. We turned around here, where the trees started to get shorter and twist from the altitude and wind.  We didn’t start till 4 pm and wanted to get back before dark.

Twisted tree and John, with his superior strength,  breaking a boulder beside the trail

Leathery lichen called rock tripe,moss, pine needles on the granite  and a fern, tree roots grasping for a hold on the rock.

small waterfalls everywhere, fall leaves on the trail

Red mushrooms on green moss, spruce/fir forest around the trail.

Moss and lichen on everything. Reindeer lichen  and thick green hair cap moss.

September 28, 2012 John’s birthday

John got up way before me and drove up to the top of Cadillac mountain to get a photo of himself with the first sun of the day on him on his birthday. I got up right before the screech of dawn and walked to the beach by the campground a took some shots.

Sunrise, and sunrise colors on the rocks and the no waves on the ocean.

I think there are no waves because we are in a bay-Bar Harbor and there are so many islands blocking the waves. Maine has 2000 islands off its coast.  John says it is just that the ocean has been calm the last couple days. It is supposed to rain this afternoon, night and tomorrow. Flowers in sunrise

Mostly I got up because I knew the light on the cliffs would be cool.

This slimy water dripping down the cliff because iridescent purple in the morning light. John  meanwhile took a self portrait of himself at sunrise on top of Cadillac Mountain, which is the first place in the US to be hit with the sun in the morning, so here he is, the first person in the US to get sunlight, on his birthday.

And a shot of his feet, the first feet in the US to get sunlight, on his birthday. Acadia has45 miles of carriage roads that John D Rockefeller Jr.  built so people could travel on motor-free byways via horse and carriage. They were built from 1913-1940 as a gift to the park. Today the roads are used mostly for hiking and biking. There is a stable and people can still take carriage rides. Today for John’s birthday we  rode 9 miles from the stable past Bubble Pond, Eagle lake and Jordan pond. Had a picnic lunch on the lawn of Jordon house. It used to be a hotel and restaurant, now is just a restaurant and people still can enjoy afternoon tea and popovers on the lawn overlooking the pond. Here is John on his birthday bike on the carriage road.

A carriage going across one of the 17 unique stone bridges built on the paths. Bubble   Pond.

Eagle Lake. The roads are edged with large blocks of granite to serve as guardrails. Affectionately called Rockefeller's teeth.

We saw many granite cliffs like this, it does not look like they were blasted, they are natural. John riding by fall color.

John on one of the bridges. These peaks over Jordan Pond are called the Bubble Peaks, John says he would have named them something else. . .

There are two gate houses built to ornament and serve as impressive welcomes to the system. This is  the north gate house.

The south gatehouse has so many trees you can only see the gate. We saw red and yellow berries.

For John’s birthday dinner I took him out to Jack Russell's steak house and brewery for lobster dinner.  We are in Maine after all.