We've made it, part 3 of our New England road trip! If you missed part 1 on our time in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, you can find that here. And you can find part 2 on our time in Vermont and New Hampshire here.
But now it's time for what was my absolute favorite part of the trip- Maine! We drove from New Hampshire through central Maine. We made a short pit stop at a winery where we enjoyed eight different ciders- blueberry was a top pick for both of us.
After a little more driving we made it to Acadia National Park! Instead of hitting the main part of the park that day, we drove a little farther to get to the Schoodic Peninsula. If you ever make it to Acadia, you NEED to make sure you come here. While it was pretty foggy while we were there, the views were phenomenal and there was literally no one else here. I think we saw 3 or 4 other cars the entire time we were in that portion of the park. It is literally all the beauty of the main park, without all the people. I wish we would have had longer to spend here. We did enjoy driving the scenic route around the peninsula and taking time to get out and explore at different stops.
The rocks here were so cool- with browns, pinks, and blacks all mixed in together. I could have sat on these rocks and listened to the waves come in forever.
The next morning we headed back to the main portion of the park on Mount Desert Island. One of the big things I wanted to do was the Beehive loop trail. The hike is only 1.4 miles long, but you ascend the 450 foot cliff via rungs and ladders on the exposed edge of the mountain. I had been hyping myself up over doing it for a few weeks before we left. I was a little terrified that I would be too scared to do for fear of falling over the edge, but I also wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. And I'm so glad I did.
Parking for the trail is at Sand Beach, and while we got to the parking lot before 9 AM, it was already full. After a few circles, we finally met up with someone leaving and quickly pulled in. As we walked from the parking lot to the trail head, you can see the top of the Beehive. And if you look really close, you can see all the people scaling the cliff to get to the top.
While my stomach was full of butterflies as we got closer, once we actually started up the trail, my fears subsided and I was more excited than nervous. Here's the warning sign before you start up the rung and ladder portion.
And a picture of us before we started the climb with a view of the top!
Overall, it was definitely not as bad as I had imagined it would be. I felt the trail was plenty wide to where I didn't think I was going to fall off (but that didn't stop me from staying as close to the mountain edge as possible ha!). But there were a few places that tested my trust in their rung and ladder system. Like this one.
And this one.
But there always seemed to be a metal bar to grab on to or to place my foot when I needed one.
As we stopped for short breaks along the way, we soaked in the views that got better and better as we got closer and closer to the top.
It took us about 30 minutes to get to the top, where we spent a good while taking in the beauty of the park and feeling proud about our accomplishment.
We headed down the back side of the mountain to the Bowl trail (which is what makes this hike a loop), and took in the scenery from this vantage point before continuing the rest of the way back down to the bottom. Everything I read on this hike mentions this, but if you decide to do the hike, PLEASE go up the Beehive and down the Bowl. We encountered people going down the Beehive portion, which would not only have been terrifying because it would have been so hard to see where to put your hands and feet as you made your way down, but it was also a little dangerous because you become in the way of people heading up. And while the trail was wide enough to feel secure, I sure didn't like meeting someone on it going the opposite direction.
Here's an excited me after getting back down to the bottom!
While we were parked at Sand Beach, we went ahead and walked down to the beach to take in the views there before getting back in the car. Lord knows I didn't want to be circling that parking lot again looking for another spot later in the day.
We continued our drive on the loop road around the park. Up next was Thunder Hole. While we weren't there during the optimal time of huge splashes and the deafening sound of thunder, we were able to catch a small thunderous noise that gave us the same general effect without all the people.
We took in the sights of Otter Cliffs before continuing on our drive again.
We ventured into the town of Bar Harbor for lunch and then made our way back into the park. I had wanted to hike the Bubbles Trail next, but the parking lot for that trail was so incredibly tiny. While we tried to wait for someone to come out, more and more cars kept coming into the lot looking for a spot behind us, so we had to keep moving. We looked for a while for another spot to park close to the trail head, but everything was taken. We thought about parking down at Jordan Pond and walking from there, but that added a lot of hike to the trek. So we decided that we would come back the next morning and do the Bubbles hike first thing. Instead we booked a quick reservation to drive to the top of Cadillac Mountain.
Now when people think of Cadillac Mountain at Acadia, they probably thing sunrise, as that is what the mountain is most famous for. From the beginning of October to the beginning of March, this mountain is the first place to see the sunrise in the continental US. Every other time of the year it's not quite the first, but it would still be an amazing place to see the sunrise. I had contemplated trying to get tickets to be on the mountain at sunrise. They only go on sale two days before the date, and they sell out super fast. We eventually decided against it, mostly due to the fact that we would probably have to get up at 2 in the morning to make it there in time to catch the sunrise since our AirBnB was about 40 minutes away from the park. I don't think we would have been able to sign up anyways because the internet reception is awful out there and we wouldn't have had service when sign ups opened. And it was honestly quite foggy our entire trip, especially in the mornings, so I'm not sure we would have even seen much of a sunrise.
Once back down at the bottom, we drove back to Jordan Pond to walk around a little bit there. I knew there was a great view of the North and South Bubble from the pond there and wanted to capture what we would be hiking the next day.
We drove down to the southwest portion of Mount Desert Island to check out the Bass Harbor Head Light station. From our first view of the lighthouse, I thought we would get a good picture once we went down to the rocks.
But it was really foggy on the other side of the lighthouse and the shot wasn't quite what I'd imagined it looking like. However, it was a true representation of all the fog we had had on our trip that far.
That night we hit up a lobster shack close to our place and ate our first full lobster of the trip. We probably could have executed the actual dismembering of the lobster better, but we didn't do too bad for our first time.
The next morning it was back to the park to do the Bubbles hike. This time the lot wasn't full and we were able to snag a spot. Up first was the hike up the South Bubble to see Bubble Rock. This was a relatively easy hike through the forest to make it to the top, where we were greeted with incredible views of Jordan Pond.
And I couldn't pass up an opportunity for the touristy Bubble Rock picture. It's amazing to me that this thing is able to stay perched on the side of the mountain like it is.
It was back down the South Bubble to the Bubbles Divide, where we took the option to go hike up the North Bubble. This hike was a lot more strenuous than the South Bubble hike was. You gained a decent amount of elevation pretty quickly, and had to traverse a lot of rocks to make it to the top. But again, you can't beat the views once you made it up there. (This hike also taught us a valuable lesson at National Parks- get to what you want to do early before the crowds get there.)
We said our goodbyes to Acadia and started driving down the coast on our way back to Boston. On the way we stopped at 8 different lighthouses, including Curtis Island Light, Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse, Owl's Head Light, Marshall Point Light Station, Pemaquid Point Light, and Portland Head Light.
We stayed outside of Portland that evening, and the next day hit up two more lighthouses on our way back south, including Goat Island Light and the Cape Neddick Nubble Light.
Our last stop before getting back to Boston was at Salem, Massachusetts. We walked the Salem Heritage Trail around the town to get in some of the most important points of the town. I would have loved to do a guided walking tour, but we just didn't have the time to do one. We started our walk at the Salem Witch Trials Memorial. It was a very stoic representation of the 20 people who lost their lives in 1692. Each bench has the name of the person, the date of their death, and the means of their execution, 19 of which were hanged and one man who was pressed to death.
We walked through the adjacent Charter Street Cemetery, where we saw the gravestone of John Hathorne, who was a judge during the witchcraft trials, and also the gravestone of Richard More, who was a Mayflower pilgrim.
We walked through Derby Square to see the Old Town Hall, which was a filming site for Hocus Pocus.
The Corwin House (better known as the Witch House) was another walking path stop. This house has direct ties to the Salem Witch Trials, as it was the home of Jonathan Corwin, one of the judges of the witch trials. It was closed for tours of the inside, so we couldn't go in to take a look.
We also walked past the Ropes Mansion, which was another filming site in Hocus Pocus.
I wanted to walk through Pioneer Village, which is a living museum of the 17th century, but we found out it is only open on the weekends, so we couldn't get inside. Instead we made our way back to Boston and got ready for the Red Sox game! When we were planning this trip, Eric made it clear that he didn't want to plan the trip around going to Fenway Park for a Red Sox game, but that we would be going to a game. We had originally slated our trip to start a week later than we actually did leave, but that would have put us in Boston for a game against the Yankees, and we didn't really want to pay that much for tickets to the game. So instead we left a week earlier so we could catch them playing the Colorado Rockies.
We had great seats with a view of the Green Monster. And while the Red Sox ended up losing 3-4, we still had a great time at the game. We made it out of the stadium before the rain hit, but ended up having the longest ride ever back to the hotel due to our driver losing signal in the tunnels under the water and making about one hundred wrong turns along the way.
The next morning we flew home and were able to pick up the kids from daycare. Brayden and Ashley were so excited to see us, Katie was a little confused and actually wanted to go back to Amanda instead of letting me hold her. She's over that now that and has been attached to my hip ever since we got back. We are definitely ready for her to be a little more hands off like she was before we left, but I'm sure we will get there again soon.
We had the absolute best time on our New England road trip. Even though it was a little rainy, a little foggy, and a little cooler than we had originally anticipated, we couldn't have asked for a better time. The crowds were sparse, the scenery was gorgeous, and the company wasn't bad either. We might have wore out the songs "Dutton Ranch Freestyle" and "Last Night" (and sadly it isn't Morgan Wallen's version ha!), but I wouldn't trade the memories we made for anything. As Eric would say, the trip wasn't terrible.
I can't wait to see what adventure we go on next!
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