Acadia Redux

 I’m glad I didn’t know what I was missing.

Last year that is, when I was in Maine, Acadia National Park was closed because of the government shut-down.  The (non-federal) places we went were lovely; some of them spectacular, but the park surpasses all that.

This year there were five women, including Colleen Miniuk-Sperry, our fearless leader.  I’ve sung her praises before.  In short, she has the knowledge and the enthusiasm to make a good expedition great.

I have nothing profound to say about this trip.  I want mostly to express my gratitude to my traveling companions for creating such a cohesive team.  We managed to do some great work and have a grand time doing it, despite some rain, gale force wind, and worst of all some stubbornly overcast skies.  The upside is that, when the sun did finally come out, we were fully primed to appreciate it.

At one point Colleen was writing down the one-liners.  I hope they’re still funny out of context. Perhaps they’ll end up in her blog.

This is Newport Cove.  We knew it would be gorgeous in morning light, so we came back three times and were thrilled that the sun did finally appear.

The rain has its charms, though, from macro images of water droplets on leaves to this boardwalk saturated several shades darker and decorated with foliage.

The day before I left Phoenix I had the pleasure of meeting and hearing a lecture from Art Wolfe.  His thoughts must have penetrated to my subconscious, because I brought home some painterly things like this tree detail. No fancy Photoshop tricks here – just a six second exposure.

And then there are the carriage roads, many of which were built 100 years ago as part of a partnership with wealthy residents (some named Rockefeller).  They’ve been refurbished in recent decades thanks to Friends of Acadia and they remain places to walk, ride, and sometimes bicycle around Mount Desert Island.  I am fascinated by the stone bridges that punctuate the roads and jumped at every opportunity to photograph them.

Trips like this are one of life’s great pleasures.

More Acadia images are in the Northeast US Gallery on the website.