Acadia National Park

Today we drove a whopping 30 miles to Acadia National Park. We had planned to stay at Blackwoods Campground, one of two campgrounds in the park. The other, Seawall CG, is closed for the season. However, when we drove onto the island, we saw a sign that said Blackwoods CG was full. Dang. Normally on a Sunday, campgrounds begin to empty out, but this is a holiday weekend. It was early yet, about 10:00, so maybe there would be spaces later. We went to the visitor's center and it was a zoo; you could barely get in the door. Screw this, let's see the park! We avoided the Park Loop Road as a route to Blackwoods CG, because there are four bridges on that route between 10' and 12' high. Faithful readers will remember that our coach soars to 12' 1". We took route 3 to the CG. When we arrived at Blackwoods, the ranger said they were just finishing their morning sweep to see what was available. She was certain that sites were available, but was concerned about the size of our coach.. They have a size limit of 35' long and 11'8" tall. Our coach is a 33' model, but she said we were almost 35' long. I didn't quibble, because we did fit in the 35' lines they have on the pavement at the check-in station. They apparently rigorously enforce the length rule, but not the height rule. I told her our height was 12'1", and she said they only prune trees to 11'8", but she would let us in if we wanted to risk hitting or brushing tree limbs. Cool! By this time, they had completed their sweep and she offered us two sites that she thought would suit us. Most of the sites in Blackwoods are pretty small, but there are two rows with pull-throughs designed for trailers and motorhomes. We walked in to check out the sites to make sure we could get through without hitting any vertical or horizontal obstructions. A-48 was perfect, so we took it. We will probably stay until Thursday before leaving and turning south. We spent the rest of the day driving around the eastern section of Mount Desert Island. We went to Seal Harbor, Northeast Harbor and back up to Bar Harbor. We looped back to the visitor's center about 4:00, and it was nearly deserted by then, so we watched the park orientation video and talked to a ranger about some things we wanted to do. There are many things to do at Acadia, but I was particularly looking forward to riding our bikes on the carriage trails. After dinner we attended the very last campfire program of the season: "All Things Furry" about mammals in the park. The ranger was very entertaining and it was a fun program.