After our morning sail, we had the afternoon free to explore. We set off for what is probably Acadia's most-photographed landmark: Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse.
We climbed on some rocks to get a view of the lighthouse, but realized that the photographers who took the famous pics of this lighthouse had probably risked their lives to get the shot. Or were in a boat. (Or maybe the conditions are better during different tides/seasons?) In September, the vantage point with the best view of the lighthouse could only be reached if you were willing to jump down here:
Choose your own adventure! Jump down to the rocks below and:
a. Break a leg. Or a neck. Your choice!
b. Slip on the wet rocks, hit your head, fall into the water and drown.
c. Not be able to climb back up.
I chose none of the above, so this was the best I could do:
I also had a wide-angle lens on my camera, and despite carrying A BACKPACK FULL OF CAMERA GEAR wherever I go, I am generally too lazy to switch lenses in the field. So I probably could've gotten a better pic of the actual lighthouse had I been able to zoom in. We did take the path from the parking lot up to the actual lighthouse, but it wasn't really that exciting up close. The lighthouse is also the private residence of the commander of the Coast Guard, so it felt a little awkward walking around someone's property. I liked photographing the rocks and natural landscape here better.
After the lighthouse, we headed to Thurston's Lobster Pound for lunch with a view of Bass Harbor. (We don't eat lobster, but the pie was delicious.)
And then it was back to the cabin. Larry was determined to "swim" in Echo Lake. He changed into his swim trunks and grabbed a beer for courage. As much as I love swimming, I had no desire to dip more than a toe in a 50 degree lake. As you can see, Larry didn't make it very far. His goal was the rock...
...but any deeper and certain sensitive parts would've ended up taking an ice bath. #shrinkage So we relaxed on the shore and then took a drive to Pretty Marsh to watch the sun set...
To be continued...
3 comments:
When we visited at dusk, there seemed to be a *little* bit more rocks to take that famous photo -- or at least we saw a bunch of photographers with tripods doing so. Maybe it *was* low tide?
The pie at Thurstons was so good, huh?
You were smart to go at dusk! The red light visible in the lighthouse at dusk looks really cool in your pics. I completely didn't think about that when we went!
We visited at dusk by accident -- we were on our way back to camp from Thurston's and decided to swing back. Turned out to be a pretty good time to photograph though like you we didn't quite get the best view of the lighthouse and not really willing to stake our claim on the rocks with the zillions of other more serious photogs. The huge downside to going at dusk: mosquitoes.
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