Finishing the Year...

So our final park.  The cherry on our cake.  The icing on the sundae.  The feather in our crown.

When we were planning our getaway a number of years ago, the general idea was to tool around North America for a while and get a feel for how varied and wonderful our homeland is.  That sounds idyllic, but if one doesn't set goals for oneself, one will accomplish nothing.  Enter 2016.  The National Park Service announces a yearlong celebration of their centennial, having been established in 1916.  We had visited a number of parks previously and really felt they embodied everything great about the American outdoors.  We looked into the possibility of tying this into our trip.

A quick aside about National Parks.  They are just one of 18+ types of public lands administered by the NPS.  There are also National Historic Parks, National Monuments, National Battlefields, etc...
There are a total of 417 NPS public land sites.  Only 59 of those are designated National Parks, which takes an act of congress.  They embody natural beauty, unique geological features, unusual ecosystems, and recreational opportunities.  One could say they are the best of the best.

So 59 is close to 52, which is the number of weeks in a year... hrmm.  Hence '52 National Parks in 52 Weeks' was borne.  And entering our 52nd week, we drove across Thompson Island onto Mt. Desert Island. It was initially protected in 1919 as a monument, and gained its current name ten years later. This felt special to us, and in line with another NPS celebration (Aug. 25th in Voyageurs), and our terrible diet; we wanted to let the Rangers know how much we appreciated them via sugar.

Thankfully, we dropped the cake off prior the the memorial day rush.  The receiving ranger was quite pleased (who isn't with cake).  He thanked us, we spoke for a while about our story, and he took it off to the break room.  After, as we browsed the postcards and stickers, about to head off to our adventures, we were attacked.  Volunteers, Educational rangers, interpretive rangers, etc. they all came up to say hello to the cake bearers and express their thanks.  We had to fight back, we were supposed to be thanking them for the great job they do under 'budgetary uncertainty and lack of the current administrations support'.  [That is of course, not including the generous gift of $78,333 to help defer the $190,500,000 budget.]  We smiled for selfies with them, showed them our map, and swapped our park stories.  It was a feel good moment.  We said our goodbyes and proceeded to camp.

THE thing to do in Acadia, recommended by rangers and visitors, is to see sunrise from the top of Cadillac Mountain.  It is purportedly the first place the sun touches in the US.  So of course we find ourselves struggling out of the tent at 3:30 to hike from the campground.  Twenty minutes later, we were turning around, realizing we couldn't cover 4+ miles of rough New England terrain in a little over an hour.  So we drove.  And got to witness this:

After returning to camp to nap, we met up with previously mentioned climber Kate and her beau Toby.  When we hung out with Kate in Red River Gorge, conversation lead to how fate not only put her in the same park as us but at the same time too.  So what do we do?  Climb of course.  The Maine coast has some really cool sea cliff to run a pitch on.  The approach was gnarly.

It was quite a different setting from the normal rock climbing wall.  And we all got our turn.

Mucho divertido was had!  After it began to rain and a class of 12 showed up to the same face, we bailed.  We spent the evening in the town of Bar Harbor doing some beer and burgers.  (Just kidding, I had a wedge salad, gotta watch the waistline).  It's a lovely little tourist town.  We said goodbye to our friends and went to bed in the rain.

The following day in the light rain, Stacy and I drove the whole loop road and saw the sights.  We did the little short hikes at most of the stops.  This included Thunder Hole:

Sand Beach (yes, real name):

Jordan Pond:

And the many beautiful stone bridges commissioned by Rockefeller Jr.:

That night our friends rejoined us for a night of beer and Chris Pratt movies.  Delicious wines, ciders, and kettle corn was had.  The next morning we ventured off (mainly for Stacy's Junior Ranger program) to an interpretive ranger talk at the base of the precipice trail.  A pair of peregrine falcons were nesting in the cliffs near the trail and to inform the public (and sate them while the most popular trail in the park was closed), the rangers hold birding sessions almost daily.  We spent almost an hour filling our brains with ornithological tidbits.

With that complete, we ventured to the 'quiet side' of the park (or as I called it; the lower testicle) on the southern bit of the island.  This was mainly based on an insider tip about Maine seafood.  Cousin Mark tells us the best 'lobstah' can be had at Thurston's.  They did not disappoint.

To burn off the calories from the cups of butter that were consumed, we swung by the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse for a peek and spent the afternoon leisurely strolling the tidal pools along Wonderland and Seawall.  Tis a good way to kill the afternoon.

The following day since it was now Sunday of Memorial day weekend, we ventured to the less visited part of the park, further up the mainland; Schoodic Point.  The hike began at Blueberry Hill and summited Schoodic Head.  The trail was typical half scramble granite sometimes found in New England.

It was a gorgeous day for a hike and we were rewarded with astounding views.

And I must say (Stacy agrees) the cutest trail blazes we've seen yet.  Every 3rd one would be detailed with an artistic rendition of some real bird.

And that was Acadia.

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So here we are.  In case you haven't read, this was our 52nd National Park.  In 52 weeks.  Mission accomplished.  What to do now?  Our journey is not over yet, and we have grown with new knowledge of our lands, our fellow humans, and mostly ourselves.  More on that next time...

-K