Joni's Jottings

My two favorite memories from our first visit to Acadia (a generation ago), are walking the Carriage Roads, and munching popovers at the Jordan Pond House. We got to revisit both on Thursday. The Carriage Road system is 45 miles of motor-free roadways covering much of Acadia’s internal acreage. Constructed by John D. Rockefeller between … Read more

On Wednesday, Matt and I split up to pursue separate adventures. Acadia has many steep and difficult trails, including some featuring “via ferrata” type climbing routes, complete with iron rung ladders, bridges and hold-on-tight handrails. Matt headed off to Acadia’s most difficult hike, the Precipice Trail, while I meandered ’round the gentle inclines of Sieur … Read more

Acadia has dozens of trails, ranging from summit scrambles to lakeside loops and point-to-point walking paths. In the opinion of this generally landlocked gal, the Ocean Path was exceptionally fine. Hugging the coastline for 2.2 miles, the path runs from Sand Beach (the only sandy beach in the park) to the cliffs of Otter Point, … Read more

What better way to spend a cold January day than with a virtual visit to a sumptuous summer garden in full bloom? There are some advantages to writing a blog post 5 months late! We spent our first touristy afternoon driving the Acadia Loop Road to visit the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden and the nearby … Read more

We stayed in Bar Harbor for a week, so had lots of time to explore the town and its surrounds. Let’s start with a bit of geography and history. Bar Harbor is in northern Maine, very close to the border with Canada. You can catch a ferry to Nova Scotia from here. Bar Harbor is … Read more