With the string of warm weather we've been having, I figured most of the snow on the island would be gone. With there being little to no snow on the mountaintops, the waterfalls won't be much, I'll just have to hope for a rainy spring. So we decided to go a little early. I started with a secret cascade on Old Norway Drive that a reader of The Acadia You Haven't Seen, turned friend, told me about. There were some large patches of ice on the old road but I managed not to fall once today. No, that doesn't mean I fell multiple times either, and I wore my bad sneakers because I didn't want to get my new hikers all wet their first day out just in case I encountered snow.
I had no idea what to expect from the falls but they were rugged and gorgeous and the river was raging. Unfortunately the sun was shining brightly so it was hard to get any good pictures of the falls. Guess I'll be going back to this one later.
I explored a tributary brook that brought me to a nice little slanted cliff cascade.
Then I noticed some open ledges above me so I kept going. Then there were more above that. Then more to the side. So I just cut across the ridge where there were obstructed views of the mountains and wide open views to the distant mainland mountains on the horizon.
Some nearby ledges caught my eye. I'll be doing some research on those and visiting them next time around. They're outside of national park territory but so are the falls I just came from so I'll give it a try because if it works out, they should offer some amazing views.
From there we drove through Bar Harbor and onto the open portion of the park loop road and then over to the abandoned Huguenot Head Cascade Trail. The water wasn't much more than a trickle so that one will have to wait until some heavy rain. I did it last spring but need some better pictures. Then it was time to head on over to Northeast Harbor. The old village trail system there is still maintained today, or maybe maintained once again, not really sure. I set out to find a few sites I thought I'd be bushwhacking to originally. The trail system is gorgeous but man is it confusing.
I came across the water tower I was looking for without too much difficulty. I knew I should have just printed up the map I found online, it would have made things so much easier. But no, I was left wandering the trails in search of a cave listed on the map. At one point I was literally right around the corner from it but me being me, I went the other way. But that led me to some amazing finds.
After meeting up with a utility road I decided to bushwhack over to a nearby brook I could hear through the trees. The area was thick with blowdown at the edge of a swamp so bushwhacking turned into crawling under, over and across fallen trees. Lots of tight roping. But it brought me to a series of incredible waterfalls I didn't expect to be there.
I had planned a trip to this area a while ago but didn't think it'd be anything spectacular so it got shuffled to the bottom of the list. I couldn't have been more wrong. The way the brook slid down a rock slab, crashing against the ledges reminded me more of a New Hampshire cascade. It was quite impressive as far as size goes.
Just below the cascade, a wooden bridge crossed the brook but the waterfall was hidden from view so you'd have to leave the trail to see it. I can't find it mentioned anywhere despite the bridge crossing right over the brook where there is another waterfall below it that actually had wooden steps leading off the bridge down to it.
From there I continued along the spiderweb of trails that brought me along impressive cliffs in the woods and up stone stairways built into the hillside long ago. At one point there was even an old iron railing to assist hikers at the top of a staircase.
This finally led me to an area that looked familiar and sure enough, my gps said I'd been there before. I just went in one big circle. But the cliffs looked awful 'cavey'. And what do you know, around the corner, there was the cave. I was about twenty feet away from it earlier in the day but if I went that way, I wouldn't have found the cascades.
The cave was honestly nothing special, just a little hole at the base of the cliff with some stones in front of it. It wasn't much more than seven feet deep and maybe five feet high but still kinda cool. I'm trying to decide of it will go in the second Acadia You Haven't Seen.
I wanted to search for the old quarry but it seemed too far away and I wasn't exactly sure how to get back to the car. Jaime had to pee and tried to find the gas station we thought was nearby but it turned out it wasn't as close as we thought and she couldn't find it. Turns out she was so close she could have seen it through the trees but she turned back a split second too soon. I did run down a set of wooden steps to to the shore on my way back to the car that I wanted to check out on my way through. It was a cute little path that was home to a small cascade. I love the way the water runs down the staircase of stones.
After our quick trip to the gas station that had Jaime smacking her head, there was still a tiny amount of daylight left so we drove back along Sargent Drive to the golf course where the quarry is located. With the sun going down it got a little cold and had me wishing I wore my coat for this last little adventure. It had been 45 all day but dipped into the thirties without the sun. I found the quarry without any difficulty.
There was quite a view from there as well which I was hoping for but not expecting. There aren't any mountains on this corner of the island so the view is quite unique. Some of the trees get in the way and there are cones and orange tape fencing around the quarry which take away from the natural feel here but it's still an incredible view worthy of its own chapter in the upcoming book.
We drove along Sargent Drive at sunset to check out a waterfall there but it was just a trickle which we kind of figured. But it did give me the chance to see a beautiful sunset over Somes Sound to end the day.
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