June 18 – Ocean Path

A mostly sunny day although it clouded over a bit and we felt a few drops but nothing to worry about.

There are so many trails and bike paths here that I just picked a recommended one out of a book I had bought. Ocean Path runs from Sand Beach (great name) to Otter Point along some of the most classic rugged Maine coastline there is. It a bit over a 6 km return trip but we stretched it to 7 with all the meandering we did.

Acadia National Park takes up part of Mount Desert Island. There is a one way loop road that you can use to drive to all the major highlights. The trail we took today is right beside a small section of the road but if we had driven or even ridden our bike we would have missed a lot of great scenery.

We parked at the Sand Beach parking lot. This is a very popular spot and even this time of year it was tough to get a spot but we played vulture and followed someone leaving.

We checked out the beach first. It is the only sandy, as opposed to rocky, beach in the park.

Then we hit the trail.

A look back down at the beach.

And a look forward to our target. Otter Point is the one off in the distance.

Quite often there were little side trails that allowed us access to scramble over the rocks. We took every one. The book said it should take about 2.5 hours to do the trail. We took 4.5. We like to stare a lot.

 

Jennie went down to check out the rocks and tide pools in the one canyon.

There are always lobstermen out checking their pots.

There were lots of shear cliffs to peer over.

Jennie actually got pretty close to some of them.

About halfway along the trail is Thunder Hole. It is a narrow slot with a bit of a tunnels at the end. Even at just after low tide and with not very big waves it made a very loud boom and threw up some good spray.

While we were watching an incoming wave met an outgoing reflection and soaked the guy in the red, above. It never happened again while we were there.

In a storm and high tide it can get very vicious here. They have to close the lower viewing area. A few years ago a lady was there and a large wave came in and pushed her over the railing. Her body was never found.

It was a popular place.

Onwards to more rock climbing.

Getting closer to the point.

An interesting pillar.

We could see some tiny speck on the rocks at the point. It is a popular rock climbing spot.

Once we got there we sat, had a rest and watched the climbers for a while.

 

The guy in the hole in the cliff face spent a long time figuring out how to get higher.

 

A little farther on we stopped at what we thought was the end of the trail. Later on the map I discovered it went just a bit further. We will drive back and see what we missed.

The roadway is just behind Jennie, in the picture below. This is where we turned around.

It took us 4 hours to get here and 1/2 hour to get back. Once again it was back to the RV for a nap.