Winnebago Voyage: Mount Desert Island: Day 2

We got an early start, and it's a good thing we did! The parking lots in the park fill up fast by mid-morning. There's a long, one-way loop through a lot of the park, which is nice since most of it is two lane, and they sometimes have signs that it's permitted to park in the right lane. This really helps when there's not room for a pull-off or the parking lot is small. They also have lots of barriers when they don't want people to park on the shoulder!

First we took the drive up Cadillac Mountain, the highest peak on the island. It's covered in volcanic rock with great views all around. There's a paved walkway around the summit. Our next major stop was Thunder Hole which has a cave dug into the rock where the waves crash. We weren't there at high tide, when it's supposed to make the most noise when the waves come in, but it put on a good show! I was at the end of the walkway when a big one came in and got pretty wet. Fortunately, I didn't have my camera or phone camera in use at the time!

There are lots of fairly long hiking trails, which must be well-used, given the number of cars at the traiheads. We also saw lots of cyclists who must be in outstanding condition to brave those hills.

After we finished the main park loop, we went to the west side of the island and did part of the loop there. It doesn't have the crowds that the east side does and there are lots of elegant homes at the various harbors.

We took the loop road to Northeast Harbor and came back along the road by Somes Sound, which in the past was described as a “fjord” and the only one of its kind on the East Coast. In recent years, this description has been somewhat downgraded to the “fjard” because it lacks the extreme vertical topography and the oxygen-deprived sediments as the Norwegian fjords.