For Tuesday’s hike I aimed at the main attraction – Cadillac Mountain, the highest peak in Acadia National Park (and the highest peak on the east coast!) [NPS] [Wikipedia]. Even though we were now clear of the July 4th holiday weekend, the park was still extremely crowded – every trailhead and parking area was packed to overflowing. I drove the park’s one-way Loop Road past several full parking areas, and looped back around to make another pass. Ahah! I lucked into one freshly opened spot in a parking area designed for four cars – as a bonus, my spot was in the shade. Read on for the full story and check out the photo gallery.
I chose to spend the week of July 4th in Acadia National Park in part because I thought it would be fun to be in Bar Harbor for Independence Day. Indeed, they hosted a fantastic fireworks display, down at the harbor. The weather was absolutely perfect – clear skies, light breeze, warm temps.
I started the evening on the rooftop deck of the Bar Harbor Beerworks, which has an extensive collection of local brews along with decent pub-style food. As the evening progressed, they started charging $$extra to remain on deck –presumably because it had a great view of the sky over the harbor, and there is surely some appeal to watching the display from a beer deck. Instead, I checked out and headed down to the waterfront. Although I arrived an hour early, the crowds had already staking out the best spaces on the grassy harborside park. I squeezed into a nice patch of grass between two families and close to the harbor’s edge. Eventually there were many hundreds of happy people here.
I set up my tripod but then realized I’d forgotten the tripod plate — required to attach the camera to the tripod! So I nested the camera in the soft camera bag, pointing roughly in the right direction, and waited.
The fireworks were spectacular, and lasted what seemed like a half hour. Sitting this close, I could feel the concussive boom of each burst.
Fireworks in Bar Harbor (Acadia) on July 4th
I took nearly 300 shots, and whittled them down to five for the gallery. Not too shabby for a first try!
Canon R5, ISO 200, f/10, 2-2.5s exposure. Shutter triggered remotely via Bluetooth from Canon’s iPhone app. Post-processed with Lightroom, mostly Auto settings.
I pulled onto Mount Desert Island for the first time in nearly 30 years, eager to return to Acadia National Park. When we visited before, the weather was cold, cloudy, and drizzly. This week looks to be sunny and warm nearly every day, and I plan to make the most of it – hiking, exploring, and learning to use my new Canon R5 camera. For my first outing, I headed toward the western half of the island – as the NPS guide rightly advised me, the popular eastern side would be extremely crowded on this sunny national holiday.
I realized some time ago that my Tesla Model Y might offer new opportunities (and challenges) for car camping. So I was determined to give it a go! I camped one night at the Lobster Buoy Campsites (described in the prior post) and, overall, it was a worthwhile experience – and I learned some lessons for the future. Read on.
Today is Independence Day, a holiday here in the U.S., and I decided to take the week off to do a little camping, a little hiking, a little travel, and a lot of photography. One of Brenda Petrella’s podcasts from her Outdoor Photography School inspired me to return to Acadia National Park – which I had last visited nearly thirty years ago. So I booked a hotel there in Bar Harbor, Maine, but wanted to break up the drive by camping along the way. Needless to say, finding an available campsite on Sunday of a three-day summer holiday weekend was nigh impossible, at the last minute, but a Google search led me to a few options along the coastal portion of my drive from home to Acadia. I found a spot – and a whole lot more. Read on.
We spent a long weekend at Kiawah, to join some family celebrations in nearby Charleston. I took the opportunity to do some photography, as I often do here, out on the beach and along the winding roads of the island neighborhoods. Indeed, I just switched to a new camera, the Canon R5 – about which I’ll write later – so this was a great chance to learn how to use it.
The full gallery includes a variety of photos, but the highlight was a visit to an osprey nest (the same one we photographed last June). Mama Osprey and two fledglings peered out from the nest, while Papa Osprey watched closely from a nearby tree.
Finally, after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the Post Mills Balloon Festival has returned. This is one of my favorite events every spring, when hot-air balloon enthusiasts gather at the tiny Post Mills Airport for a weekend of ballooning and fellowship. The term ‘airport’ hardly fits, because it is a simple grassy airstrip nestled between a forested wetland and the town cemetery, but the lure of these graceful, vibrantly colorful balloons on a cool spring morning brings me back every year. Read on, and check out the gallery!
A historic site recognizing another use of the term ‘provost’.
I spent the weekend in Charleston, SC for a retreat with provosts from several peer institutions. Just a few blocks away was a historic building, c.1771: The Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon.
After two weeks with family here in Kiawah Island in South Carolina, it’s time to head home. We’ve had beautiful weather, allowing time to explore the sands and lagoons of this beautiful island. I’ve added to the gallery more photos of birds and scenery. It was foggy on the beach at sunrise this morning, so I’ll share this photo from Christmas morning.
Kiawah Island has been sunny and warm every day, but one consequence is the dense fog that settled over the island this morning. I was out on the beach at sunrise, but it was invisible. After a long walk I found driftwood to provide some foreground interest, just as a jogger passed by.
David Kotz 