Acadia on Schoodic and MDI

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, the majority of Acadia National Park is on Mount Desert Island (MDI). But there are other parcels nearby, too. Much if not all of the land that makes up the park is actually the result of personal land grants. That's why bits of it are scattered.

The Schoodic Peninsula is about an hour's drive north of the island. It's not really convenient, but in this case that's a good thing. Because the hordes of leaf-peepers that have been swarming the Bar Harbor area (the main village on MDI) don't usually go to Schoodic.

It felt like I had the place to myself. There were other people there, but not a lot. And those that were there were traveling in small groups, not mobs. It was quite tranquil.

If you were sitting here with me instead of just enjoying the photo, you would have heard waves gently lapping the shore, seagulls and other birds making noise. That's it.

Here's a bit of geology for you. Most of the large boulders in and around Acadia are granite. Much of the granite is somewhat pink. The picture above, taken along the shore on Schoodic, is an example of that granite beside some black, volcanic rock which is the result of magma forcing its way to the surface through the granite. That magma push happened a long time ago, of course.

After taking lots of cool rocky coast shots, like the one above, I headed back to MDI. I stopped and bought a cold cut sub for lunch, which I took with me for the drive to the top of Cadillac Mountain.

Cadillac, as it is known on MDI, at 1,530 feet is the highest point of elevation on North America's eastern seaboard. As you'll see in the next photo, the view was a good one.

The cluster of buildings you see is Bar Harbor. A close-up of the village from the Cadillac summit is in the next picture.

I plopped myself on a giant, pink granite boulder and enjoyed my lunch and the view at the same time. The rocks were rather interesting looking.

When I was done on Cadillac, I headed east on the Park Loop Road. It was getting close to sundown and the light was just right for leaf photos. I stopped quite a few times along the way and got some very nice pictures as a result. I posted my favorite below. You can see the others on my Flickr page.