Maine

One summer I spent a week in Maine in Acadia National Park. Maine is a gorgeous state and Acadia is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. While we were there we camped out and ate lobster at every opportunity. Unfortunately, ever since, I have not had a taste for lobster.

At Acadia, the mountains run right up against the Atlantic. The coast is rocky and full of wildlife. Some days we would boulder down to the ocean's edge and look in tide pools for crabs and other small aquatic animals during low tide.

At high tide, the waves would crash up against the rocks sending water high into the air. There are a few places along the coast where water has tunneled through the rock and at high tide, water fills the chambers sending water spewing up through holes in the rock 20 feet into the air. I could sit for hours and watch trying to figure out which waves were going to cause the highest spout.

Other days we would hike up mountains. I think the highest mountain in the area was Mount Cadillac. While there was a hike up, we opted to drive the curvy road up to the top. Arriving just at sunset, while extremely windy, it was a breathtaking site. It was one of those sunsets where there are all the colors perfectly glowing around a bright red sun. From our spot atop the mountain we could see the mountains all around for miles and watched the last rays of the day as they crept away from the ocean.

All the mountains in that area were made of granite so the hikes at times could be quite challenging. Most had some bouldering involved to get to the top of the mountain. I found one hike that you needed to climb up ladders to get to the top. The ambitious child I was I tried to get my family to take me on that one, but they were too chicken. Someday I will go back and do that hike.

For the amount of traffic that Acadia sees on an everyday basis, the park is relatively wild and well maintained. The forests are gorgeous and you can go hours in the wilderness without seeing other hikers . I would defiantly recommend making a trip up to Acadia.