Friday, July 24, 2015

Sunset Point in Harrington, ME

We have been enjoying our time here at Sunset Point Campground in Harrington, ME.  It is a small place, peaceful and quiet, right on the water, and they will even deliver hot fresh steamed lobsters to your site!  Folks are friendly, sites are big, only down side is several of the sites including ours have no sewer hook up, although they will come pump you out for free, which we will do today.
Our site

A foggy view from the campground


The weather has been a little iffy with some rain, drizzle, and the frequent phenomenon in Maine in late summer, FOG.  But nicely the picnic tables are even under cover.  

As we were planning what to do while we were here, we noticed on the map that there are other parts of Acadia National Park that we somehow in years and years of coming here never noticed, pretty observant, huh?  One on Shoodic Peninsula, and the other on Isle au Haut.

So we decided since we were fairly close to the part of the park on the Schoodic Peninsula, we would go explore.  And, of course, we found a little hole in the wall restaurant along the way, Chase's in Winter Harbor, and had a terrific lunch first.
Seafood chowder the way it's supposed to be!

Dynamite clam roll and onion rings!
Then on to the park, it turned out to be small and beautiful except the fog was gaining on us.  It is basically a one way loop road with a few short hikes.  
Beautiful views from the loop road


See the fog?

Here it comes

The path to the "view point"

A foggy view
We found a path to a viewpoint that was on the top of the highest point, but the fog beat us.  It was a nice short hike on a nice day, but the fog kind of destroyed the "big picture".

We had a little project on the motorhome which I will describe in another post, so that took a day, then the weather was a bit iffy, so we made a couple little trips here and there exploring, but the one big thing we wanted to do was go visit Campobello Island in the Bay of Fundy.  This was the island where FDR spent a lot of his life, as a child and also as president.  Not being a particular fan of his, we still wanted to visit the island and the surroundings with less emphasis on his home etc.  The island is in Canada, just over the border and there are actually two parks there, one is the Roosevelt Campbell International Park, a joint cooperation between the US and Canada, and also a second park, Herring Cove Provincial Park.  The island is absolutely beautiful, with beaches, bluffs, and 30 foot tides.  We started off with a couple mile hike to an overlook above Friar's Head, delaying our visit paid off as the weather was stellar, clear as a bell, and 70 degrees or so.
The beginning of the trail

Along the way

Through the woods


View at the top of Eastport, ME

Gorgeous
After our hike we worked our way over to Herring Cove, and it's huge beach.

Then we went south to the very point of the island, Liberty Point for our picnic.  Now I should mention, as we were driving up to the island in the morning we went along the coastline and through a little town of Cutler, and just as we came upon the harbor we spied a beautiful schooner that had just raised it's sails and was sailing out of the harbor.
Cutler harbor

The beautiful schooner
Our picnic spot was perfect, unlimited views, rocky shore, waves crashing, and nobody there besides us.  And we could actually watch the tide coming in, 30 feet is a big tide!
Picnic

What a coastline!
So as we are looking around, what do we see off in the distance?  Our schooner from earlier.

What planning:-)


Also off in the distance we had a view of West Quoddy Head Light, a lighthouse on the easternmost point of the United States.
West Quoddy Head Light
We explored the island some more and decided since we were so close we should go over and see the light.  We made our way back into the US, and I should mention or question, I guess, one thing.  When we stopped at Canadian Customs, we were treated courteously and nicely, we were asked questions politely, and then welcomed to Canada and told to enjoy ourselves, BUT, when we come back into our USA, as citizens, we are treated with contempt, asked questions in a condescending manner, and basically scowled at.  What a welcome back!

Anyway, we drove over to the lighthouse, keeping our eye on the towering storm clouds.

Funny, the easternmost point is called west?


That point of land in the distance is Liberty Point
where we had our picnic lunch
Sure enough as we left, about 3 miles down the road we were in torrential rain.  How's that for timing!?!

4 comments:

Sandy Smith said...

How far would you estimate you are from the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia?

Bill said...

One and the same Bay of Fundy. It's about 60 miles across to Nova Scotia. In fact with the incredible visibility we had at Liberty Point, we could just make out Nova Scotia beyond Grand Manan island.

Unknown said...

Did you ever make it out to Isle au Haut? Ray & I took the mail boat out there years ago from Stonington. Stonington is where we visited last summer. that beautiful house on the hill that is now for sale!

Bill said...

No, we never have. Too bad too, would've been fun. Going to a farmer's market today, weather cruddy, overcast, drizzly, and 57! Last day out here in Harrington. Real pretty though, typical Maine weather:-)