Moving INTO Acadia National Park

Monday August 14, 2017                                                                                 Most Recent Posts:
Seawall Campground                                                                     Chasm Brook Bridge and Udder Heaven
Acadia National Park                                               Bald, Parkman and Gilmore – A Lot More Than We Bargained For
Mount Desert Island Maine

 

I just realized after posting this that in my hurry to catch up to real time I posted the wrong one.  So this one is out of order.  Oh well . . . . .  that’s what happens when I try to put together two or three posts at one time.   Wish I could take it back and post the right one but once it’s posted, blogger won’t  let you do that. They’ll let me amend it but if I recall it, blogger won’t post it again.  Oh well . . .  It’s only my sense of order that’s bothered.  No one else will know the difference.

And so, on we go.

Today is the day to change campgrounds. We move from Narrows Too, located just off Mount Desert Island,  to Acadia National Park’s Seawall Campground on the south section of the island near Bass Harbor Light.   You can see the campground area within the red oval and the RV loop within the blue star in the map above. 

 

 We’re moving from two months of Full Hook Ups, to a few days of No Hook Ups.  The reason for this is that we originally booked two months at Narrows Too at an RV Show price and when we decided we wanted to stay longer, we couldn’t get that rate.  So I patched together other places like Seawall which we wanted to try out.  We really love staying inside the park but it’s not possible for months at a time.  We stayed in Blackwoods the last time we visited Acadia and then moved to Narrows Too for a month.  But this year we have more than doubled the length of our stay in and around Acadia.

The sign on the Ranger’s Station welcomes us with all the particulars when we walk up.  David checks out the information on the bulletin board, including campfire programs, while I deal with the check in.  Campfire programs are one of many reasons we love staying inside the National Parks.

 

 

For those interested in Acadia’s  campgrounds,  they are very similar.  Neither has hook ups.  Both have places to take on water and a dumping station.   Both have restrooms with cold water sinks and flush toilets but neither has showers.  For that you have to go to private concessionaires down the road from each campground.  Further down in this post I’ll point out the one at Seawall.

The rig size limit in both is 35’.  That’s why Winnona is 35’.  Both campgrounds have been in the park for a very long time and in both campgrounds the sites are difficult to level up in.  Seawall has a separate loop clear at the back for RVs only but that doesn’t mean the sites are level.

As I said, neither campground has hook ups.  Using solar in Seawall is difficult due to the trees.  There are only a few sites that have enough area open to the sun.  But there are a few.  As far as I saw when we stayed in Blackwoods in 2013, there were no sites that had any open area to allow solar.   Therefore generators are the power source.  I’m not a fan of the noise and thus we are only staying here a few days. 

Our site, #23, is nice other than the leveling problems, but we get set up with a little effort.  It takes all 12 of our pads and some blocks to make it happen.

 

 

All of the sites in the RV Loop D are pull throughs with the exception of a few.  The pull throughs all seem to go up hill to a very small level spot and then drop off.  Great for shedding rain but not so much for leveling unless you have a short RV as you can see here.

 

Here’s a better look at the leveling situation we created.  The site drops off in front and back and to the passenger side.  But she’s level now.

 

We have a nice yard and decent foliage between sites.

 

 

Here’s a look down the campground road.  There are other RVs here but you cannot see them in this picture.  Winnona blocks the ones on the right and the ones on the left are further in on their drives which are plenty long enough for a 35’ RV and a car. 35’ is the limit for RVs in both campgrounds.

 

We don’t set up much since we’ll only be here until Friday.  Instead we hop on our bikes and head down past the Ranger Station to the waterfront picnic area.   On the way we stop for a look, with these folks,  at the free firewood pile.  Just drive up and take as much as you like.   Already split for you.  I assume it’s dry but don’t know that for sure.

 

 

The picnic area is a really lovely spot on the Western Way of the Atlantic Ocean about as far south on Mount Desert as one can go.  You can see on the map that the campground road goes right across Route 102A and on down to right on the water where it has arms going in either direction.  On the map it has a red star next to  it.  You can also see it is just across from the Cranberry Islands.  Looks like we could kayak right over there but it’s much further than it looks and that’s just really open ocean water.  Open ocean worries me much more than kayaking with gators in Florida does.

Remember the no showers in the park’s campgrounds.  You can see on Route 102A just north of the beige parkland in the private land areas “hot showers”. 

 

The seashore in the picnic area is wonderful.  It looks like some folks have recently been having a very good time with rock stacks.  Some of them are seriously impressive.

That low strip of land across the water from here is the Cranberry Islands.

 

 

 

The area to David’s left is Seawall Point, a spit of private property.  As you can see, many of the picnic tables here are right on the water.

 

Cranberry Island across the way has houses and can be visited by ferry.  The park has a Ranger led program that goes on there.

 

I think this one is my favorite formation.  It’s so intricate.  How did the artist get those three to stand up perpendicular to the rest in the middle?  Wonder how long it will last?

 

 

Swimming off shore is a group of Common Eiders and they are very common in the ocean waters off the island in the summer.

 

Almost twins, maybe fraternal.

 

 

Not much wave action this afternoon but all we need is a good storm.  I just love that this spot is so close to our campsite.

 

Tomorrow we’ll hike our last mountain on this side of the park and it’s the perfect one.  Really looking forward to it.