After hearing about how the leaves were late in changing colors in 2015 I decided to take a chance and book late October for Bar Harbor. The flight was into Boston in early afternoon and drive up to Camden, Maine and spend the night on the way to Bar Harbor. Well, of course, the trip started out with a delayed flight so the time it arrived in Boston it was 3:30 pm. Just in time for rush hour to start once the short bus ride over to the rental car occurred. Since this is the first time in Boston, I had heard using cell phone can be a problem in the tunnels so I took my handy Garmin with me. Well between the two and some switching lanes in the tunnels I managed to escape Boston slowly. The traffic was bad so it took an extra hour to get completely out of the Boston area and head north. Arriving into Camden about 8:30 after stopping for dinner, it was easy to see that several days could be spent around Camden. Small town with lots to do around the downtown area. For this overnight stop, Lord Camden Inn was the place and it was a very good choice. It was located in the heart of Camden and was very nice. I wish I had booked several nights at this place after spending the night. So before bed, it was a night cap at the Sea Dog Brewing Company. The morning is Camden was spent strolling around wondering why I didn’t have more time here. After going down to the water, it was time to go because the weather in Bar Harbor looked to be a storm coming and the afternoon looked to be the best time to see the park. Here are a few pics along the way to Bar Harbor from Camden.
Once getting into the Bar Harbor area meant heading straight to Acadia National Park because the weather didn’t sound good coming up. So once inside the park, a stop at the Ranger station seemed in order since I had no real plan of where to go. Let’s just say I’m glad the season was on the tail end because I can only imagine how crowded and slow getting information would be during peak season. Have patients because the Rangers will keep answering questions till your done and the couple in front of me had plenty of questions, and questions, and questions. So with an afternoon to see as much as possible the Ranger said head to Cadillac mountain and if possible go see Jordan Pond. Good plan indeed because both were gorgeous. So much to see and the views were spectacular.
Once it was time to leave the park it was time to visit Bar Harbor. Except what I didn’t expect is end of season. The end of October and the beginning of November means businesses start closing for a week and that is exactly what happened here. So my recommendation would be don’t do what I did. Book earlier in the month of October. There were many places still open but you want it all. In order to do a lot of walking around Bar Harbor, Bass Cottage Inn was chosen as the place to stay because it looked great and was close to everything. Again, great choice! Afternoon wine reception, great breakfast, top notch room and great hospitality. It will be hard to ever want to stay anywhere else if I get to go back to Bar Harbor and I hope I do.
So in the middle of the night the weather changed and it changed for the bad. High winds and steady rain. So the next morning having a wonderful breakfast and trying to figure out what shops to go to in the pouring rain, the Inn keeper came by and suggested going back to Acadia and driving the loop close to the ocean because the waves would make great viewing. Alright, now a plan was in place. Off to the park and by the way down by the ocean is a one way trip to make sure you know this. The drive proved interesting and the picture taking proved crazy. It was like being in a hurricane and deciding to take pictures of everything. So after several hours of craziness, enough was enough because it was cold, wet, and overall not much fun. I included a few pictures with the water on the lens just to show what taking pictures in a Monsoon looks like LOL.
