Beautiful Beech Mountain and Bass Harbor with a Baby (and a Dog)

"There is nothing so American as our national parks...The fundamental idea behind the parks...is that the country belongs to the people, that it is in process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us." -Franklin D. Roosevelt

Our second day started early, which meant it'd end early. Before heading to bed, we rearranged our camp and moved our vehicle to block out those pesky neighbors of ours. Acadia passed out early (and Lily, too!). Cara and I had a campfire for an hour or two after sunset, but a long day eventually caught up to us.

Readjusting our campsite ended up working out like a miracle as it blocked out any noise and light from our neighbors, and we both got solid nights of sleep.

Acadia ended up waking up in the 6 o'clock hour, and Lily was relatively amped, so our campsite was abuzz by 7 a.m. We made breakfast and coffee and started a morning fire.

After getting in touch with Lou, we found out that they were planning to hike the Acadia Mountain and St. Sauveur Mountain Trail Loop. Our research told us it would be a strenuous four-mile excursion. We read some trail reviews. And while it seemed doable, we felt it might be just a tad too difficult with a kid in a backpack carrier.

Acadia Mountain and St. Sauveur Mountain trails are also some of the most popular hikes on the other of Mount Desert Island. After having Lily on a leash the entire previous day, we wanted to do a less-traveled trail to give her an opportunity to hike off-leash (which she is fantastic at doing).

Lou, Emily, Rick, and Emily's brother all planned to start their hike around 11 a.m. By 8 a.m., Cara and I were sitting around the fire thinking that it might not be a bad idea to start a hike. We weren't up to anything anyways. We told Lou we were going to pass on the Acadia Mountain and St. Sauveur Mountain trail and do something on our own.

We still wanted to check out the other lung of the island, so we geared up and packed into the Vue. To get there, we'd have to go up and around Somes Sound toward Southwest Harbor. The trail we had in mind was called Beech Mountain. From what we could tell, it was a lightly trafficked three-mile loop.

Toward the summit of Beech Mountain is an old fire tower that used to be open to the public but isn't anymore.

It sounded as good as any hike we could find on that side of the island. Plus, with us being over there, we could meet up with Lou and Emily later on when they were done with their hike.

So, once we got to the Beech Mountain trailhead, we realized why it is so lightly trafficked: there are no more than 15 parking spots available. And with no parking allowed on the side of the road, you had to get there early and get a parking spot or you weren't going to hike Beech Mountain.

Fortunately for us, we got there early, got Acadia settled in, handed her the spoon from the craft fair (she wouldn't let go of it), and set off for the Beech Mountain summit.

Sunrise Hikes and Ocean Breezes in ANP

"The early worm gets the worm." - Michael Scott

After getting back from Bar Harbor the previous night, the sun quickly set. In the woods, things get dark fast. With headlamps on, we did our best to get Acadia down for bed while also packing up our backpacks for a morning sunrise hike.

Success on all fronts and our alarm was set for 4:15 a.m.

Cadillac Mountain is the place in the United States where you can see the earliest sunrise. Put that together with an easy access road and large parking lot, and you can start to picture in your mind how popular seeing the sun crest over the water will be.

Sunrise was set for just past 5:50 a.m, but we wanted to get there earlier. We'd want to meet Lou, Emily, and Emily's dad, Rick, by 4:45 a.m. outside the entrance to Blackwoods Campground. They'd leave their car there while we crammed into the Vue and drove 20 minutes to the Cadillac Mountain parking area.

If we could have fallen asleep right when we wanted to, we would have ended up with about seven or eight hours of sleep. But that didn't happen.

A pair of girls rolled into the neighboring campsite late, left their car running and headlights on full beam while they set up camp. They also had industrial-style floodlight flashlights that they would shine into all neighboring campsites. Add that to the fact that they lit a tiki torch (a big no-no in a National Park) and leaned it on a rock (it wasn't even staked into the ground!). Despite getting in late and staying up past "quiet hours," the girls talked excessively loud. Sound travels in these close campsites. They had no filter.

Needless to say, Cara and I spent most of the first few hours of "sleep" complaining to each other as well as speaking to them directly before reporting them to a ranger when the tiki torch was precariously rested on a rock.

In the end, the tiki torch was confiscated and they were issued a citation. They still stayed up until 1 or 2 a.m., talking with an incredibly high volume.

How can people go through life with such little self-awareness?

Fortunately for us, Acadia slept through it all, and we did eventually get some sleep. But by 4 a.m., alarms began sounding throughout the campground. We weren't the only ones with the idea to see a sunrise on Cadillac Mountain.

All things considered, especially given the fact that we were next to the winners of the Worst Camping Neighbors Award, we got up, got the Vue ready, and met the other members of our party at right around 4:45 a.m.

A crammed vehicle and 20 minutes later, we arrived at Cadillac Mountain to this breathtaking view about 30 minutes before the sun would peek over the horizon:

Acadia goes to Acadia!

“Let Nature be your teacher.” – William Wordsworth

Back in June, Cara brought up the idea of going camping in Acadia National Park. Naturally, I felt just as interested in the idea. Who wouldn't want to pack up a 2008 Saturn Vue that just cracked 100,000 miles with all that was necessary to camp for a few nights in a National Park in beautiful Maine?

And we had to leave enough room in the back for our dog.

And we'd bring our eight-month-old along for the trip.

Oh - and did I mention it was more than 11 hours away? On an island. In Maine.

Anytime we brought the idea up - both before we had a campsite reserved and the numerous times once we committed to doing it - the number one adjective used to describe us was "crazy."

Crazy or not, when we finally started to think about it seriously, the number one issue we had was that we'd plan to go Labor Day Weekend. That was great for us as we would each only have to use one personal day, but we'd still get the perks of a four-day-weekend. The problem was that hundreds of others had the same idea and there were no available campsites.

We weren't too worried, though. (A very similar thing happened to us when we wanted to camp in Arches National Park back in 2016.) I tried to check the availability once or twice a day just in case somebody canceled. On July 4, sometime around 10 or 11 p.m., I checked. And there it was: an open site. Before we could sleep on it, I punched in our information and had the site reserved.

Acadia National Park is where we'd spend our Labor Day weekend. We'd spend it with our dog and daughter, who got to visit the park she was named after before she was even a year old. We'd also get to spend some time with friends, although we didn't know that at the time.

As the summer went on, and especially once school kicked back up, excitement and adrenaline superseded any type of anxiety or second-thoughts.

So, before we knew it, the car was situated with enough room for a dog and a car seat.

Now, the goal was to get to Boston on Thursday night, stay with Lou and Emily, wake up early on Friday, and make the final push into Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park.

Taking A Stroll to the Sol Duc Falls

"Many people just sit behind their steering wheel, scared to venture into the wilderness." - Keith Foskett

There is something to be said on trips like these when you get to head to bed one night knowing that you don't have to rush off to some other place. Getting into the Sol Duc Campground Wednesday evening, setting up camp, and going to bed with that feeling made for something magical.

Getting an opportunity to sleep in a dense forest with all of the sights and sounds that come along with it is something that I wish more people would seek.

That Wednesday night was one of the coolest nights we'd had in quite a few days. And considering the intense heat we'd been experiencing as hikers, it was a welcome relief. A sleeping pad and sleeping bag paired well with the owl hoots that seemed to dart from one area of the forest to the other in a moment's notice. With extreme exhaustion levels, listening to the silent wildlife provided the perfect white noise for a solid night's rest.

Sometime between 9:00 and 10:00 a.m., we stirred, ate breakfast, and began thinking about the day ahead. We needed some ice for the cooler, so we got in the car and drove half of a mile to the Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort. Ice was necessary, but there were ulterior motives as we wanted to see what the springs were all about. It might be a place we'd find ourselves near later that day. The overpowering stench of eggs told us we were there.

We inspected the resort and checked out prices before deciding to head back to camp to change for the day. Soon, we made lunches and choose to take things easy by hiking only five miles roundtrip to the Sol Duc Falls from our campground.

Hiking Up the Klahhane Ridge

Note: Back in Seattle and with some internet access means I can get some updates going again. You'll want to read this story through to the end. This was a crazy day!

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"Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery." - John Ruskin

On Wednesday, the four of us slept in a bit and took our time packing up our camp at Lake Cushman. We ate some breakfast and took a walk to and along the lake before packing up the vehicle for our next stop in the northern section of Olympic National Park.

The agenda for today was to drive up to and then hike Hurrican Ridge Trail, a beautiful and scenic path along the ridge of some mountains.

Our drive took us into Port Angeles East and then to the Olympic National Park Visitor Center at the bottom of Hurrican Ridge. When we got there, we got some bad news. The Hurrican Ridge Trail was closed, starting that day, for trail maintenance. It wouldn't be open to the public for another three or four days.

Needless to say, that bummed us all out, and we felt like we hit our first snag in this park. We didn't have a backup plan, so we frantically began looking up different hikes that we could do. Some we thought of looked good until we saw the difficulty level. Eventually, it was off to one of the park rangers to get some advice on what we could do.

We did want to drive up Hurrican Ridge somewhat, and the ranger recommended the Switchback Trail. The trail isn't heavily trafficked and would offer up views just as stunning as those on Hurrican Ridge Trail. That said, before we ventured off, the ranger did warn us of the non-native mountain goats. They like to follow people (to lick the salt of their skin) and will get aggressive if humans get too close to them. The ranger said the best advice is to pick up some rocks and throw them toward the goats if they get to close. Although we laughed a bit about that, we figured we'd do it if the time came.

Ascending Hurrican Ridge Road, we soon found the trailhead for Switchback Trail and saw the warning signs about the goats.

Our First Taste of the Olympic Peninsula

A little bit of a note to get started: I'm without service and definitely don't have wifi here in Olympic National Park, so posts will be somewhat infrequent and missing most photos. I'll do my best to update and show you all what we've been up to. There is a solid chance this will be my last post until Friday.

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"The beauty and charm of the wilderness are his for the asking, for the edges of the wilderness lie close beside the beaten roads of the present travel." - Theodore Roosevelt

Tuesday morning, we woke up in Rockport and had the van packed by 8:15 a.m. We ended up running into a solid amount of traffic getting into Seattle but were able to drop off Jesse and Maria in the city by about 11.

We said our goodbyes and wished them a fun day in Seattle before setting our focus on Olympic National Park. It ended up taking us roughly two hours to get to our campsite for the night, Skokomish Park at Lake Cushman.

It's a gorgeous and deep lake nestled in the mountains of the Olympic peninsula and only seven miles from Olympic National Park.

We immediately went to our site, unloaded and set up our tents, and took in a few views from our site. Only a short walk away from our site is the edge of the of the lake that gets very deep quickly. In the background of the lake are the mountains, some loaded with pines while others just shoot sharp rocks into the sky. We knew we had a lakefront site, but we didn't know it would also be so breathtaking.

Boatin' Around Ross Lake

"Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life." - Jack Kerouac

After our insane hike yesterday, you'd be right to assume that we were all a little sore and tired Monday morning. What was supposed to be a 7:30 a.m. start to the day ended up being more like an 8:00 or 8:15 start. There's no shame in that because, after all, our day was just as wild as the day prior.

We started off heading out of Rockport and onto the Cascade Highway, passing through Marblemount and then Newhalem. Just outside of Newhalem is the Gorge Overlook, which, as you may suspect, overlooks the Gorge Lake.

It was a cute, well-manicured trail just off the main road. We didn't get far, honestly, just enough to snag a few of the photographs above. It's beauty wasn't hard to miss, but it wasn't exactly what we had planned. So after about 15 or 20 minutes, we were back in the van and on our way to Ross Lake.