Strange Trip Part Four: Wonderland

Wonderland, Acadia National Park, Mount Desert Island, Maine

13 September 2020

To get away from the crowds in Bar Harbor, Jack and I take a drive to the Quiet Side of Mount Desert Island. Near Bass Harbor is a piece of Acadia National Park called Wonderland. 

It's described as an easy walk through the woods to the coast. 

We're at sea level, but the vegetation looks like what we see at the top of Cadillac Mountain: lichens on granite and stunted evergreens. The wind must blow something fierce out here.

 

The trail appears to split. I know it's a loop, so I head to the right. We find ourselves on the rocks.

   

After we've trudged along for a few hundred yards, I see people ahead of us who can't have gotten where they are from where we are. That's when I see the trail up in the woods. We get back on, where we should be. "So that was an unnecessary experiment in ankle spraining?" Jack says.  "Pretty much," I tell him.

Another side trail leads to the rocks again. This one is short and obvious.

Turns out there are a lot of these little detours.

To the north, fog is rolling in over the mountains.

At this point, Jack is no longer following me out onto the rocks. He waits on the trail with his eyes on his phone. He's not much for scenery. One peek is enough for him. Not me. I have to see all the things and take pictures.

Is that a house? I think that's a house.

On the return trip down the trail to the car, we spot a lump of pinecones sitting on a branch. They look unlikely, as if someone put them there or it was a lucky tumble from above. I lift them up to make certain, then put them back where they were. Why ruin the illusion for the next person?

We're near enough to the Bass Harbor Head lighthouse to visit that too. Acadia recently bought the site, so it's part of the park now. When we get there the parking lot is full. We turn right around. 

Our drive back to Bar Harbor takes us past Southwest Harbor, where numerous luxury yachts have been docking. According to the local paper, the Mount Desert Islander, the townsfolk are of two minds about this. They're happy for the business, of course, especially since there's no cruise ship traffic. But the yachters tend to throw noisy parties.

As the article says, it's all about the scenery.