Biking and Hiking (and Eating) All Around Acadia

I'm going to say that yesterday was the "Triathlon of Visiting a National Park." We biked. We hiked. We ate.

It started out pretty early, as usual, but this time it was on bicycles instead of in the van. We got on the road outside our house and headed toward Loop Road, which is the main road in the park. We're not staying near an official road entrance, so we had to carry our bikes through an opening in the woods to the road. From there, we biked a couple miles to an a carriage road bridge. Again, we had to hop of the bikes and carry them to the carriage road.

The carriage roads are nice because there are no vehicles on them - only walkers, bikers, and horses.

We were on the carriage road for another mile or so before arrive at Jordan Pond and the Jordan Pond House. The House is famous for its popovers. We knew it could be busy by the time we returned from our hike and hoped to make a reservation, but they were already booked up. We'd just have to chance it after we came back from the trail.

Our trail for today was on the Spring Trail, which takes along and then eventually to the Penobscot Mountain. The trailhead was only a minute-walk from the Jordon Pond House. It started out wooded and took you over the Jordan Stream very early on.
 

Buzzing around the Beehive Trail (plus a bonus hike)

July 4th might be the busiest day of the year for any National Park, so the plan for yesterday was to be in the van and ready to go at 8:45 a.m. Surprisingly, we were pretty good about that and had entered Acadia before 9 a.m. Because of our early start, we were able to get a good parking spot for our first hike of the day: the Beehive Trail.

When it comes to difficult and strenuous hikes in Acadia, there is the Precipice Trail and the Beehive Trail. The Precipice Trail is often cited as one of the most dangerous hikes in a National Park with higher ratio of falls, injuries, and deaths (a college student died on this trail five years ago after falling) than any other trail in any other park. Fortunately for those of us who seriously afraid of heights, the Precipice Trail was closed as peregrine falcons are currently nesting.

That meant our fearless planner who has no regards for heights (or those who are afraid of heights) decided on the Beehive Trail. It's not as difficult or dangerous - so they say - as the Precipice Trail, but for those of us who are not the biggest fans of heights, it was still insane.

On the Cadillac of Mountain Hikes

We got off to an early start yesterday en rout to the iconic Cadillac Mountain. We know all about the beauty of seeing a sunrise from top, but logistically speaking, especially during the 4th of July week, it was going to be extremely difficult for us to drive up to the mountain to see it.

So, instead, we decided to hike it a little after sunrise. Fortunately for us, our house is only a quarter-mile from the Cadillac South Ridge Trail, which is located across from the Blackwoods Campground. Our guide book suggested that we actually start at the Cadillac North Ridge Trail, hike to Cadillac Mountain, and then descend along the Cadillac South Ridge Trail, ending at the Blackwoods Campground before catching a bus back to Bar Harbor. But because of where were staying, we decided to do the opposite.

Our hike started our fine (aside from a quick stop a tenth of a mile in as Cara realized she forgot her phone and had to run back to our house).

Driving Out East

As I'm coming to you from Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island in Maine, maybe it doesn't make sense to have this blog called "Driving Out West." But I don't think I have it in me to change it, so I'll leave it be.

Anyways, after our big road trip last year, my parents decided they wanted to do something like that. Not a trip that was as long, of course, but something that would take them to a national park. They wanted Cara and I to do the planning, and they'd go along for the ride. We had no problem agreeing to that, so we set our sights on Acadia National Park - a place neither Cara and I nor my parents had ever been to. Along with mom and dad, my sister and brother made an envoy of six.

The first stop on our way was in Boston. We had ourselves an Airbnb in the Chelsea neighborhood and spent Saturday hiking the Freedom Trail (with a slight detour to the Harpoon brewery). I'll end up throwing most of those photos on Facebook eventually. By Sunday, we were on our way to Mount Desert Island - a roughly five-hour drive from Boston.

Along the way, Cara found a cool place to stop in Portland. It was the Portland Headlight in Fort Williams Park.

How About Another National Park?

Good news for all of you who enjoyed the road trip blog: I've decided to keep this blog going as a travel one. This holiday weekend, Cara and I were able to add to your list of National Parks - and it did not disappoint.

We still have until June 2017 on the America the Beautiful pass, a pass that gets your car into any National Park fee-free. With that in mind and an invite from Cara's family to go camping just outside the Shenandoah National Park, we knew that we'd be visiting our eighth (!) National Park of the year this past weekend.

The campsite was a private one, and it wasn't anything to write home about. Let's pick up with the park.

It's actually somewhat comical that Cara and I originally thought about biking to the park - we stayed about five miles away from the park entrance - and the trail I had found online, the Dickey Ridge and Snead Farm trail, was only five miles into the park.

Ten miles on a bike doesn't sound too bad. The comedy, though, comes in when you realize that the elevation change from our campground to the Dickey Ridge trail is a roughly 2,000 feet increase.

That wasn't happening.

So, on Saturday of Labor Day weekend, we ended up driving in, and it was the right call because along with Cara and me, her parents, their dog, Juneau, and her aunt and uncle, and their dog, Titan, joined us in the park. The bad part was that we found out at the entrance that the Dickey Ridge trail was closed off to dogs because of a recent bear attack where a dog died.

That was OK, however, as we found another trail, part of the Mount Marshall Trail, about 15 miles into the park that would give us some nice views.

That was the plan, but we didn't get more than a mile in before needing to take a stop and admire the beauty of the Shenandoah Valley.

As the photos above show, the weather was perfect hiking weather. It was in the upper-60s with a light wind. The clouds would provide the occasional shade spot. But when you're hiking in a densely wooded area, shade is abundant. Still, it was a beautiful day.

Making Our Way Back Home

Well, we knew from the time we left San Francisco last Sunday that the rest of the trip was all about heading east and getting back home. Grand Teton, Yellowstone, and the Badlands were part of that trek east, but that still left a few more days (and stops) to get there.

The first of those stops was in the Minneopa State Park, which is located just east of Mankato, Minnesota. Like I mentioned in the previous post, this was a place chose solely because it was on the way home and about 6-7 hours away from the Badlands National Park.

After driving on a bunch of back roads at times through South Dakota and Minnesota, the state park and campground seem to come out of nowhere. Our site was located in the back part of the campground, and with all neighboring sites unoccupied, it made for a very private site.

Despite the happy smiles on the faces above, we weren't too happy about the mosquito village we seemed to invade. The fire proved necessary to help keep some of those pesky bugs away.

These Are the Baaaaaaaaadlands

Sleeping in this open campground in a field in the Badlands of South Dakota was pretty interesting. At some point in the night, Ethan and I awoke to the sound of something howling off in the distance. I think all of us eventually heard it, too.

They were coyotes and the pack was moving quickly because, a minute later, we heard them on the other side of the campground. It was both fascinating and frightening. I guess that's why they have you park around the campground and set up your tents inside the loop.

Still, it was a really cool place to spend the night. And this is what we woke up to in the morning:

There were also some prairie dogs moving around in the campground in the morning. Actually, there are prairie dogs everywhere in this park. They're definitely the cutest animal we saw this trip.