Photo Friday: Acadia National Park

Way back in September, when we first arrived in Maine, we headed straight over to Acadia National Park so that we could attend the Night Sky Festival--a celebration of Acadia as one of the few "dark sky" places in the NE, and a chance to learn some more about astronomy, etc. We didn't fail to take advantage of being in the park, though, and we hiked and biked a lot of miles of trail in 3 days.

Lots of parts of the community of Bar Harbor come together to make the Night Sky Festival happen. The classic Criterion Theater was the site of a fantastic performance by Galileo's Daughters, with readings by Dava Sobol (author of The Glass Universe).

We followed that up with some star-gazing through telescopes hosted by about 30 volunteer amateur astronomers. Seeing the rings of Saturn was definitely a treat! I don't have photos of that, of course, nor of the lectures/presentations we attended on things like Mars and the sun. We also took a "night sky" cruise on the bay, which was both kind of fun, and partly just cold and a little stinky (from the diesel fumes). But the sunset was beautiful.

Ready to board for an evening of story-telling (by a local Native American professor) and star-gazing (a refresher in all the constellations, which I regularly learn and forget).

The sun was setting as we pulled out of the harbor.

 During the days, we engaged with the beautiful landscapes of Acadia. There are 45 miles of carriage roads in the park, open to bikes. They aren't paved, but the crushed gravel and hard-packed dirt are smooth enough even for our road bikes, though in a few places deeper gravel made for some interesting riding. We didn't ride all 45 miles, but we did cover about 20 miles.

Trees were just beginning to show color, and being fresh from the West, we enjoyed every hint of it.

 The carriage roads aren't all flat, though the grades are pretty easy. The carriage road system was built from the 1920s to the 40s, financed by John D. Rockefeller, to allow early visitors to see the park peacefully--by foot, horse, carriage or bicycle, but never by motorized vehicle. They are distinct from the trails, as we will see!

You can still see the island by wagon, if you want to pay for the opportunity. We stuck to our "iron steeds."

The horses were beautiful. We did have to occasionally dodge evidence of their passage while biking.

 We would have liked to bike up Cadillac Mountain, but time and good sense argued against it. We drove up for a quick dinner before our cruise.

Cadillac Mountains offers expansive views over the whole region. The Maine coast is an endless series of fjords and islands left behind when the glaciers passed through.

As said, we also hiked some trails that bore little resemblance to the carriage roads. Being adventurous, we just *had* to tackle the one labelled "Precipice Trail." Warning signs, in our experience, are always exaggerated, as the parks work hard to protect themselves and their visitors.

We soon found that this might be one time when the signs spoke the absolute truth.

Yes, it was that much of a cliff. As advertised.

It did occur to me to wonder how many years those rails had been there, rusting away...

By the time we got to this part, it looked like a super-highway. Happily, though I don't like edges, I was fine with all the rails and rungs to hold onto. I consider the trail something like a jungle-gym for grown-ups, though I certainly agreed with the recommendation not to try to climb down!

 We made a nice loop over the mountain.

Walking off the edge of the world.

And down into the forest, with the hints of fall color tantalizing us at every vista!

The best part about our visit? Despite the Festival bringing a few extra people to the area, perhaps, the crowds of summer were gone--and so were the infamous black flies! No bugs, no crowds, though there were also no last-minute sites available in the Park campground. We found a place just outside Bar Harbor, though, which was actually more convenient to the Festival events, which mostly took place in town. The park doesn't quite feel like our large western wilderness parks, but it's worth a visit--and the Precipice Trail is worthy of any park!

 ©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2018

 As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated.

D: Mt. Desert Island and a Middle Grade Mystery

 

Day 4 of the Challenge, and D is for Mt. Desert Island. That would be Acadia National Park, and am I already messing around with the alphabet? You bet I am! Because even though the island is named for "Mt. Desert" there is no Mt. Desert. The French explorer Champlain called the place "île des monts déserts" or island of the bare (desert) mountains. The largest of those bare mountains is now known as Cadillac Mountain. Are you confused yet? Well, don't let it bother you. It's all just an excuse to bring you a review of Out of the Deep, a mystery for middle-grade readers with an environmental theme.

Title: Out of the Deep (Series: Mysteries in Our National Parks).
Author: Gloria Skurzynski and Alane Ferguson
Publisher:  The National Geographic Society, 2002.147 pages.
Source: The ever-beloved library

Publisher's Summary: 
(Note: during A to Z I am more inclined than usual just to give you what the publisher uses as a blurb).
Wildlife veterinarian Olivia Landon and her family are in Maine, investigating the mysterious strandings of marine mammals on the rocky beaches of Acadia National Park. With the family is 14-year-old Bindy Callister, a temporary ward who has been bullied by her older brother. Jack, Ashley, and Bindy come upon a baby humpback whale stranded in a rocky tidal pool and barely alive. During the complex rescue operation that follows, no one notices when Bindy wanders off. By the time Jack and Ashley find her, Bindy is acting very strange. She knows who' s causing the strandings but is afraid to tell. Jack and Ashley must get her to talk before more lives are endangered!

Review:
I've been meaning to track down and read some of these National Park mysteries ever since I first saw them in a park bookstore several years ago. I hadn't done it mostly because I rather feared they would be mediocre stories slapped together for a theme. (Well, and because some have rather sensational-literature-style covers). I should have known better. I don't find many bad books in the Parks bookstores. And if this is no great work of literature, it is a well-constructed mystery for kids, with just enough excitement to keep them reading, and some reasonably well-developed characters.

My second fear was that the ecological message would swamp the story. That is always a risk with a book that is written at least in part with a message, and make no mistake, this is a book with a message. But I have to say that the authors--one a recognized writer of adult mysteries, and the other a science writer--handled the material well. A kid reading this will learn a lot about whales and only occasionally may feel that he has wandered into a textbook. Far more often, she will feel like she'd better finish the chapter and make sure they all survive! 

A brief afterword by a whale researcher helps the kids sort out truth and fiction.

Recommendation:
I think this book will appeal to both boys and girls from maybe age 8 or 9 and up. There is some rather real peril before the end, but you never really doubt that the kids will be okay, and I like that they take action themselves in a tight situation. This is a book that has less appeal to adults than children, I think--in other words, it hits pretty squarely on the audience it aimed for.

Full Disclosure: I checked Out of the Deep out of my library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."  


Now for a couple of photos to go with the setting:

The kids rescue a whale that is stranded on, I think, the beach in this photo. At any rate, they turn and see The Beehive behind them, and this is shot from the top of The Beehive!

Waiting for sunset on the bald top of Cadillac Mountain, largest of the "desert" mountains.

I also need to note and apologize here--we are on the road for the next week (getting new photos to share!) so my responses will be limited, as will my visits to other blogs. I'll do my best to catch up whenever I have internet access, though, so please don't give up on me!