Since we were in the area for several days, we had lots of time to explore Acadia, which was nice, since it let us explore instead of having to hit all the highlights before we ran out of time.
Were the places I wanted to hike we didn’t? Definitely. But that’s true for just about every place except Coopers Rock SF.
The first thing we did was (of course) take a scenic drive of the area. I got one of the driving guide books at the visitor center, and we used that to guide us.
We also did a short-ish hike on the Gorham Mountain trail.
We also accidentally hiked up to Bubble Rock.
How do you accidentally hike up to a ridge line? Failing to look at the map and a stubborn refusal to turn around are the answer.
Of course I best liked (wait for it!) the rocky shores.
The next day we did the drive up Cadillac Mountain.
The view was amazing, but there was very little shade, so it was not my favorite spot of the visit.
The drive on Schoodic Point was gorgeous.
We also did some walking on the Carriage roads, which were fascinating in and of themselves, nevermind the scenery
I spent a lot of time walking on and scrambling around the rocky shore. (I may or may not have been singing Birdhouse in your Soul while doing so.)
Yeah, that’s a nice view and all.
BUT THESE ROCKS ARE AMAZING!
SUCH AMAZING ROCKS!
Also, I listened to the ocean a bit.
But really, it was mostly the rocks.
There’s a picture opposite me
Of my primitive ancestry
Which stood on rocky shores
And kept the beaches shipwreck-free
Though I respect that a lot
I’d be fired if that were my job
After killing Jason off
And countless screaming Argonauts
One of my goals for this trip was to check three more states off my “visited” list: Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire.
Also, I don’t much care for interstates, so we took primarily back roads on our drive to Maine. And two of my proposals were to drive through the Green Mountains of Vermont and the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
We spent so long at the Botanical Garden we visited in New York we didn’t get any stops in the Green Mountains of Vermont, but had a scenic drive the next day through the White Mountains.
I have to say that aside from our stop, New Hampshire was kind of disappointing and I’d rather have spent more time in Vermont.
But that stop me made?
Excellent.
At the start of the White Mountain Scenic Route is Flume Gorge State Park. It was a pretty hefty admission fee to get in, but since it was vacation, we splurged.
It was worth it.
It starts out somewhat slow, and you walk up to a cascade down a hill of rock.
Pretty, but I’ve hiked places like that in West Virginia–and could go out on the rocks.
Then you come to a boardwalk that runs alongside the Flume Brook.
Then, up ahead, you can see the walls starting to narrow and the creek getting louder.
The gorge narrows and is stunning.
Then you come to the waterfall.
But that’s not the end. You walk gravel trails (some steep) to high point where you can look into the valley.
Through some more forest and finally across a bridge above the Pemigewasset River.
There is more of a walk through the forest, on a very well maintained path, some large trees, lots of wild flowers, and glacier boulders.
So, despite how expensive it was, I very much enjoyed the walk.
But I’d still like to go back to Vermont to hike in the Green Mountains.
Hard to believe, but we actually left the house for an extended period of time.
It was weird.
I’m still not ok being indoors unmasked (and I’m never ok with crowded places). Luckily, we spent the majority of our time outdoors.
We drove to Maine with my mother, and our first stop was a place we visited a decade ago: Hickory Run State Park.
The main draw is the boulder field.
I can hear you being unimpressed, so… do you see the people in the above picture?
Does that help? Do you see the person in the red jacket? And all the people past them?
This picture of Michael? There are at least twelve people behind him to the left, and at least one behind him to the right.
This boulder field is more than 20,000 years old. It’s a giant lake of boulders stretching 400 feet by 1,800 feet, and as deep as 12 feet in places.
It’s very hard to walk on (I wished I’d had two hiking sticks and not just one) but very much worth it to go out even a few feet and to see just how stunning the boulder field truly is.
Just don’t look down too closely.
So very many giant spiders.
There are other things to do in the park, and we did manage a brief hike.
We would have taken a longer hike, but when it rained on us, we headed back.
I did get this short clip of Sand Spring Run along the trail.
It’s not quite been a year since I last posted about hiking, but close. I actually have been hiking, but didn’t feel up to writing about it, since I didn’t have much joy to share.
But yesterday was a gorgeous hike at Coopers Rock, and I wanted to share some pictures. Hopefully this means things are slowly (slowly) getting better.
We grabbed our snow shoes got to Coopers Rock where we saw lots of cross country skiers. Since they all seemed to be heading out the roadside trail, we went down Scotts Run trail, which had no ski tracks for and out and back.
It was stunningly beautiful.
There were a couple of trees down across the trail.
And disconcertingly, here you can see the tree lying over the tracks in the snow we’d made on our way out.
Why did so many trees and branches fall? Because under the layer of light fluffy snow, everything was covered in ice.
But that’s why everything was so shiny and bright and gorgeous. And having gotten there early, we got to see parts of the trail no one else had yet traveled upon.
The other thing that’s lovely about hiking in the snow is just how quiet and peaceful it is. For the most part, we all we really heard was the creek.
Because I kept stopping to take pictures, we were overtaken by a guy who was also out to enjoy the fresh snow.
When we reached the point where we generally turn back (after hanging out by the creek for a bit) we discovered he’d stopped briefly.
Thank you, random stranger, for leaving that. It made me happy.
The hike was just under four miles, but some of that is because I kept wandering off the trail, to hike through the fresh snow and avoid the wet bits of the trail.
Location: Coopers Rock State Forest
Trail: Scotts Run (partial, out-and-back)
Distance: 3.9 miles
Elevation: 1860-2253 ft (475′ change)
And just for fun, I’ve been recording creeks for awhile, now I’m putting them into one place.
I took four different videos yesterday. Feel free to click through and look at the rest.
For years now we’ve been meaning to hike to the High Falls of Cheat, but never managed to get there. So we decided to check another trail off our list last week.
High Falls of Cheat Trail
Distance: 7.6 miles (out and back)
Elevation: 2927-3701 feet (1469′ gain) ~10% grade on the mountain
See that ridge-line in the distance? That’s we we’re going up and over.
It was a bit chilly when we set out.
And even cooler along the ridge-line.
Down the other side of the mountain, and after a 2/3rds mile walk down the railroad tracks (which kinda sucked, to be honest), we came to the falls.
Location: Cacapon State Park
Distance: 4.2 miles
Elevation: 1079-2287 feet (1311′ gain), 20% grade on the uphill, 23% grade on the downhill
Trails: Ziller Loop, Ziller, and Central Trails
Up up up!
And now down!
Also, I managed to find the bog on the way back to the car. (“This looks like a shortcut!”)
We visited Tu-Endie-Wei several years ago, but somehow I failed to take any pictures. So we went down again so I could get some pictures for the hiking class I’m doing for OLLI.
We saw some other stuff too, including this really disconcerting mural.
But more importantly, we got more pictures at the Mothman statue.
