BLOG- Fall Foliage In Acadia

Perfect fall day for some foliage photos in Acadia, I still needed a few pictures for the revised edition of The Acadia You Haven't Seen Vol 2. All sun, no clouds, which doesn't make for the best photos, not to mention my ear infection and infected toenail, but I managed to make it work. First stop of the day was Breakneck Road because somehow in all of my visits, I barely had any pictures aside from the waterfalls. The photos sucked due to the sun but it was a beautiful day, 50s, no wind, and I was able to get what I needed for the book.

We headed over to the Otter Cove Causeway, where they’re still doing construction, but I was able to pull over, hop out and get the pictures of the trailhead and cove that I needed. My old photos were from a gray day, so gray they looked black & white. Ah, this is much better.

Next stop was Boyd Road, after doing the Loop Road for a ways where every lot was overflowing. I hopped out but the sign said the shooting range was in use, I'm sure it wasn’t but it seemed like they didn’t want people going that way. So we looped back around, parked at the Triad pull-off by the bridge and I set out on the carriage road for the other end of Boyd Road. I’d never been on this portion of carriage road before and stumbled across what might be a nice little waterfall after some rain.

Hopped onto the north end of the abandoned Boyd Road after exploring the abnormally dry swamp at the base of the Featherbed trail.

Boyd Road was gorgeous with some color in the trees, but mostly on the ground.

After a bit of searching I found the start of the old Green Mtn Trail up Cadillac, an abandoned trail off another abandoned trail. The goal was to get to the boulder section for some photos but with the sun shining through the partially leafless branches, I turned back before reaching my target, no point in going any further today.

I followed the unnamed stream down to Hunters Brook, climbing over tons of blowdown in the muddy ravine, losing the shoe off my foot at one point. Crossed the brook with some easy rock hopping, ignored the trail on the other side and bushwhacked up to the carriage path I started out on. Fairly easy whack through open woods with only a few hundred feet of steep uphill at the end.

And 4.5 miles later I made it back to the car. Since it was getting a little late in the afternoon we were amazingly able to get a parking spot at the Bubbles lot when a couple cars finished their hike. Jaime accompanied me on this one and we made our way down to Jordan Pond, which was as busy as it is on any summer day. Not easy to get photos without mobs of people in them but I managed to get a few.

I did not however manage to find the start of the old Goat Trail. I really need to start bringing my own hiking guides with me. I knew the general area but I just couldn't find it. It didn't matter anyway because with the sun beating down, the pictures I needed wouldn't be any better than the washed out ones I already have.

Well, I suppose it was a semi successful day. Traffic back to Ellsworth was insane, at times slowing to a dead stop. I swung by Walmart to get some carrot cake after wanting it all day for some reason. Oh and if you're wondering, my infections, both ear and toenail, did perfectly fine throughout the day. But I was admittedly a bit sore by the time we got home. After going through today's photos, I think I got what I needed and really, any day spent hiking is a good day.