After our long drive yesterday, we slept in and took our time getting ready to go to the park. We are super excited to head to our second national park of the summer! Our campground is only a few miles from the entrance, so we had a short drive. Before we left, we asked the lady in the front office what we should see, and she gave us some excellent advice. You can drive a 27-mile loop around the park, but 3 of the main sites are in a row. She recommended driving to the furthest one and hiking back, allowing us to have the best views of the coastline along the way. That’s exactly what we did, and it was gorgeous.
Compared to Yellowstone, it was surprisingly not very crowded. Parking seemed limited, until we found a parking lot just past Gorham Mountain Trail, which was almost empty. We got out and hiked along the coast to Otter Cliffs. The Atlantic was a deep majestic blue, unlike the Atlantic we’ve seen elsewhere (specifically Ocean City, MD). It was exactly how we pictured the Maine coast - rugged, rocky and stunning. After enjoying the cliffs, we hiked back towards Thunder Hole, a narrow break in the rocks where waves crash and make a loud sound like thunder around high tide. Tourists line the sides of the rocks and get soaked by the spray. We continued up toward Sand Beach but got distracted by the large boulders lining the coast and spent time climbing around on them.
For lunch, we decided to head to the Bass Harbor Head lighthouse on the southwestern part of the island. With over 3400 miles of shoreline, Maine is strewn with lighthouses. Interestingly, all of the lighthouses have a unique signal, like a fingerprint, allowing sailors to identify their location based on that signal.
We ate lunch by the coast and drove back to the campground, making a quick stop at Hadley Point beach, right down the hill from the campground. Not much excitement for the rest of the night... laundry, trip planning, hot dogs and campfire. It may be a little boring, but it was exactly what we needed.
