A trip to Acadia National Park to close out 2019

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There’s something I love about tourist places in the off-season. Living just a few minutes’ walk to the beach on New Hampshire’s seacoast, I love the months between Columbus Day and Memorial Day, when parked cars along the beach are rare, when there’s not another soul walking the beach, when only the regulars and locals are putting in their miles along the wall. Sure, I miss the açaí bowls at Secret Spot and lobster rolls at The Beach Plum, but I love the quiet. The desolation. The stillness. And, then, as if with the flick of a switch (that first warm day of spring and lasting throughout the summer), the beach comes alive.

That same stillness and quiet in a typically bustling place is what draws us to Acadia National Park in the off-season, and in the winter in particular. The park is definitely different in winter. Sure, most of the 27-mile Park Loop Road is closed (including the road leading to the summit of Cadillac Mountain), but visitors can still travel part of the loop road, walk along Ocean Path, visit Sand Beach, access the carriage roads and Jordan Pond—and much more…even more for those willing to hike, ski, and snowshoe a bit. Visitors will still see cars parked at various trailheads throughout—but only a handful, not the dozens that warmer temps bring. While sharing the park, one of the most visited in the country, with so many others is certainly fun on some level of community and camaraderie, we’ve come to love the days and months when we can hear only our own footsteps on a trail or when we share “hellos” with only a few others.

I’ve written before about our love affair with Acadia; back in 2000, when we were celebrating our first anniversary, we “settled” on visiting Bar Harbor and ANP because we couldn’t afford the travel to Nova Scotia. From that first trip to now—nearly 20 years and countless trips later—Acadia still remains one of our favorite (if not THE favorite) places.

Over the years, we’ve had the opportunity to visit Acadia in every season—we’ve spent summer days kayaking on Long Pond and Echo Lake and winter days snowshoeing on carriage roads. We’ve walked along Ocean Path and around Jordan Pond, up to Great Head and down to Boulder Beach; we’ve driven Park Loop Road countless times, always in awe of the views. We’ve heard the loud clap of rushing water at Thunder Hole and walked the beach at Sand Beach—even once in our snowshoes! I’ve run a few miles along the town’s streets and the parks’s carriage roads. We’ve seen the sun rise and set from atop Cadillac Mountain, and we’ve marveled at all the folks doing the challenging hikes that we can’t imagine doing (the Precipice and the Beehive immediately come to mind—maybe someday!). We’ve walked the sand bar at low tide over to Bar Island and driven over to the “quiet side” of Schoodic.

We made sure to include Acadia as a stop during our three-week road trip this past summer—when we finally made our way to Nova Scotia to celebrate our 20th anniversary—and for several years, we’ve opted to use a few days during Christmas and New Year’s to escape to the quiet, mostly shut-down park and surrounding towns. As 2019 was drawing to a close, we again returned to Acadia, staying, as we often do, at a timeshare in Southwest Harbor, one of the quieter sides of Mount Desert Island. But, let’s be honest: in December, it’s all quiet! There wasn’t enough snow to take our cross-country skies or snowshoes, but we packed a few games (oh my gosh, we’re now addicted to Ticket to Ride!!!), our cameras, extra layers, and set out for a few days of quiet. And we were not disappointed. But, then again, Acadia never disappoints.

I took the time to play around with my new-to-me Fuji XF 16 1.4 lens, one of those “magic” lenses in the Fuji fan world. Shortly after Thanksgiving, I decided to trade in a few lenses to fund this new one, hoping I wouldn’t regret losing some old stand-bys. After just a few days over the holidays and then a few days outside experimenting and getting to know the lens, I’m hooked. It’s pretty incredible—and I’ve only just begun to see what it’s capable of. I still have a ways to go in learning its capabilities, but I’m looking forward to the journey.