Acadia National Park (Bar Harbor) at Seawall Camp Ground 9/14 - 9/22/2021 Travel Tour

                                           From: casarollnotes.blogspot.com                                                                                                                Tim and Linda Bunyan

Staying at Seawall Campground (Recreation.gov) for 8 nights $120.00 paid in full.

Bar Harbor (settled in 1763) is a walk-through time town on Mount Desert island along Maine's Frenchman Bay. 

 It serves as a gateway to the mountains and cliffs of neighboring Acadia National Park.

Bar Harbor is a summer haven for the rich and famous, attracting the Astors, Fords, Morgans, Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, and Carnegie.  Today it is a vacation destination for everyone.  Celebrities (Martha Stewart and Susan Sarandon and others) have summer homes here.

Tim and I strolled by the many t-shirt shops and restaurants in Bar Harbor to Barrack Obama's favorite Ice Cream!  Mt. Desert Island Ice Cream, it truly is a fearless flavor and is delicious.  We sat on the front porch to enjoy our ice cream.

Hinckley Yachts.   For nearly 100 years Hinckley has created a unique legacy in yachting.  

This service Harbor yard (1928) ranks as a world-class service facility.  Yachtsmen want their boats to have the highest level of care and service.

  Hinckley operates a facility for vessels up to 80 feet.

We discovered a noteworthy special exhibition for artist Harold Haertel's extraordinary bird carvings at the Southwest Harbor Museum.   Contemporaries with Wendell Gilley they each had an intense interest in nature. 

 Starting making decoys and began carving birds full-time as a second career.

Harold Haertel was an artist who made his own patterns, carved by hand and painted with oils.  His son, To

m (also a carver) shares stories and Harold's work.

Roadrunner made for W. Gilley.

Bike Ride on Mr. Rockefeller's Carriage Roads and Bridges: One of our top favorite bike rides on our travel tours.  Fortunately, for us, Rockefeller donated the property to eventually become part of Acadia National Park.  Between 1913 and 1940 Rockefeller financed the construction of a system of beautiful carriage roads and granite bridges on Mount Desert Island.  

Carriage road signs are necessary on this 45-mile property 

One of 16 historic carriage road bridges John D. Rockefeller built on Mount Desert Island.

Over forty-five miles of carriage roads. The bridge designs are built of granite blocks and detailed architectural stonework.

 Tim and I biked several days on these automobile-free roads.  With a well-refined sense of landscape design; built the carriage roads and bridges to blend harmoniously with the natural landscape. 

GateHouse was built in a rural French estate style where gatekeepers are notified to open the gate to allow carriages onto the roads.

Jordan Pond is picturesque, 

located within Acadia National Park with a 3.6-mile shoreline.  Jordan Pond Bridge (1920) 20' arch spanning the confluence of Jordan Stream and Jordan Pond.  Tim and I biked around the pond and returned to the carriage roads.   Jordan Pond is famous for serving tea and popovers at the Jordan Pond House.   Stunning with a beautiful view!

Mailboat ferry from Harbor Town Dock to visit Cranberry Island.  Named for the wild cranberries that grow there in the Fall.   

  The population is over 300 in the summertime, but the year-round population is only around 40.  Mostly fishermen who fish the shores for the ever-popular seafood, lobster.General Store, the school and library, Post Ofice, Whales Rib Gift Shop. 

 Tim and I walked along the 1-mile hiking trail beginning at the rocky beach in a beautiful, secluded cove and brought us through a luscious forest filled with bright green moss, spruce trees, and quiet serenity.   There are 3 generators on the island to support those who live there in the winter.  

Cranberry Islanders are lobstermen, boat builders, painters, carpenters, caretakers, cooks, postmasters, merchants, artists, writers, librarians, teachers, boat captains, mechanics, gardeners, bookkeepers, town em, employees, pastors, marathon race directors, homemakers, and volunteers.  Some people commute to jobs off-island, others telecommute.

Full-service post offices operate on Great Cranberry island; every morning by mail boat/ferry.

Heading East to the outer reaches of the U.S. to Lebec, Maine.