The climax of our summer vacation was a visit to the Mt. Desert Island part of Acadia National Park on our last full day in Maine. I was excited to make use of the small ferry that runs through Frenchman’s Bay from Winter Harbor to Bar Harbor so I caught the first boat over on Wednesday morning. Unfortunately Laura wasn’t feeling well so she opted to rest a few more hours and meet up with the rest of the party later in the day. Immediately after being deposited into Bar Harbor, I departed on another epic bike ride. Like the Schoodic part of the park, there is a one-way loop road that winds through several of the park’s coastal regions. I stopped at lots of places to take in the views with a slight smugness that I didn’t have to hunt for parking like the 100s of people around me.

At mid-day I met up with Mom and David for a quick horse drawn carriage tour around Day Mountain. The carriage roads are a unique part of Acadia. They were primarily built by Rockefeller so he could ride his horses away from car traffic and now they serve for hikers/bikers to enjoy the park away from car traffic. I thoroughly enjoyed exploring them. The day ended with beers at Bar Harbor and a nice multicourse meal at the Chart House.

Check out the highlights below and click any photo to see the full Google album.