Nature’s Magic & Quiet Awe – Schoodic Peninsula, Acadia NP, ME

October 26, 2017 by libertatemamo 32 Comments

“You’re not going to like your site”

We’d bumped into the camphost as we were checking in at the main office and he was giving us the lay of the land, with a little tongue in cheek mind you

“The sites are too long, too private and you can’t see your neighbor” he continued “everyone complains about it”

Oh yeah, I totally hate that kind of campground” I shot back with a smile “we may have to lodge an official complaint ourselves”

We’d arrived at Schoodic Woods Campground (full review coming) and it was so quiet you could hear the birds sing and the autumn breeze rustle through the trees. We already knew we were going to love it based on the experience our buddies Technomadia had here last year. In fact it was their stay, the stay that Watson’s Wonder did, and the volunteer work that RV Dreams did here that same summer which inspired us to make this our very last stop in Maine. Their pics and descriptions peaked my interest to such a degree that we knew it was a place we just HAD to experience for ourselves.

And they did not steer us wrong.

Schoodic Woods is a brand new campground which just opened up a few years ago and it is VERY different from all the other National Park Campgrounds in Acadia (on the MDI side). Instead of tight sites and narrow roads it’s got great, honking, huge sites with spacious roads and more than enough room for any-sized rig.

We’d booked our ~150-foot long pull-through 4 months ago and when we pulled in we were just as disappointed as the host predicted we’d be. Enough space to fit at least 3 beasts and such a relaxing atmosphere it’s a miracle we didn’t snooze off before we’d managed to put the jacks down. This was the biggest National Park site we’d ever stayed in and one of the nicest campgrounds we’d been to all year!

Remember how I told you about the quiet side of Acadia National Park? Well Schoodic is the REALLY, REALLY quiet side, the forgotten side, the bit that only few ever visit. It’s located around an hours drive (or ~45 mins by Ferry) from the main part of Acadia NP and it’s 2,366 acres of rugged granite cliffs and forested mountains on a peninsula attached to the mainland.

It’s not nearly as large or varied as MDI (Mount Desert Island) and the local town (Winter Harbor) is a sleepy little place with just a few eateries, but it is OH SO peaceful. This is where you go to get away from it all, to lounge in your ridiculously large site, to watch the water crash on the shore cliffs and to basically just commune with nature.

It was just our kind of place!

We didn’t really “do” much here in the sense that we didn’t have a lot of sightseeing outings. Our site was simply too nice, and the surrounding nature so attractive that we didn’t feel the urge to go off anywhere else. There’s an interesting-looking winery/distillery (Bartlett Estate) not too far away which we didn’t get out to see, nor did we visit the most popular local bar/eatery joint (The Pickled Wrinkle). But we DID drive around to see Schoodic Point at sunset, we DID walk the trails and bike the Carriage Trails and we sure did lounge something ridiculous.

Driving The Scenic Loop

When you stay at Schoodic Woods Campground you are right at the start of the sightseeing loop that goes around Schoodic Peninsula and it’s the main draw in the area.

Much like the scenic loop on Mount Desert Island this is one-way (anti-clockwise here) most of the way around, but it’s a lot shorter taking only ~30 mins to drive the whole 12 miles or so point-to-point. Also similar to MDI there’s a free shuttle bus (Island Explorer) that takes you around, a convenient option for those who come by ferry from Bar Harbor, or those in camp who just want to leave their car at home.

There are numerous stops and pull-outs along the way the most spectacular of which is Schoodic Point at the very bottom of the peninsula, a scenic overlook of weathered red granite rocks that’s a popular birding area as well as (interestingly enough) a good sunset point. People come here to walk the cliffs, watch the waves crashing onto shore and enjoy the views over Frenchman Bay to Cadillac Mountain.

We drove the loop several times while we were in camp and thoroughly enjoyed each trip.

VISIT & PAW NOTES/ The Schoodic Peninsula loop is a ~12 mile drive (if you go all the way around point-to-point) and dogs are welcome everywhere in the park. You do need a valid Park Entry Pass which you can buy at Schoodic Woods check-in building if you don’t already have one (cost is $25 for 7-days, or entry is FREE if you have an Annual National Parks Pass).  For those who prefer to leave their car behind the Island Explorer Bus is a convenient (dog-friendly, and FREE) shuttle service that drives the loop on a regular basis. 

Biking and Hiking the Schoodic Trails

The other great pastime in this area are the many trails which run from Schoodic Woods all the way to the wooded top of 440 ft Schoodic Head.

The trails here are not nearly as extensive or scenic as the ones on the main island of Acadia NP, but there’s a nice variety from easy to more challenging. In addition a sub-section of the trails, specifically 8.3 miles (13.4 km) of them, are wide graded paths (modeled almost exactly after the Carriage Trails on MDI) which are perfect for an easy hike or bike ride.

We did several short hikes including the Lower Harbor Trail, a lovely ~1.2 mile waterfront hike that’s accessible from the bottom of the entrance road to the campground. Plus we hiked (several times) around the granite rocks of Schoodic Point. Most of the time however we simply hiked (or biked) the Carriage trails since they were super easy to walk and accessible directly from the check-in office just below camp.

And they were just lovely!

We were out on the trails at least 3 times/day with doggie and I think we saw a total of 5 other people the entire week we were here. Sheer hiking perfection!

VISIT & PAW NOTES/ All trails on the Schoodic Peninsula are 100% dog-friendly. There’s a good overview of biking trails HERE (these can also be used for hiking) and hiking trails HERE. Plus you can buy a detailed trail map for $0.50 at the Schoodic Woods check-in office.

Lounging (And Meeting Blog Readers)

We were not the only folks who loved it here. We met several blog readers around camp, most of whom had spent their summers up in Canada exploring some of the wilder parts of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Our friends from Lubec showed up, as well as Toys.Trails.Tails (hello ladies!) and a few others we met on our daily walks around camp. So fun to meet you all, and your paws too!

Plus our furry family loved it here too.

The cats have an innate instinct for the best places wherever we go. They’re older gals now so they mostly just like to lounge on the RV bed in the afternoon sun, but when we get to a gem of a spot like this they will immediately meow and fuss about going outside. They can probably smell the nature or perhaps it’s the tweeting birds that awake their little killer instincts (although we know from mousy experience that’s likely not the case). Either way they WANT out, and what the little princesses want, the little princesses get (they’re both leash-trained). We are merely their human servants, after all.

The dog knows the good spots too.

She’ll sit by the door looking at us with heart-break eyes (think Bette Davis eyes here….she could win an Oscar with those looks) and will faff excessively on her walks, pulling us furiously past the RV as soon as we get close to home. Once temps drop she gets even more excited, fueled by the chilly air, the squirrels (there were plenty here) and the ever-interesting and varied forest smells.  I think we spent more time walking (or sitting) outside the RV here than we have almost anywhere else all summer.

One Last Picture

But there was ONE more thing I needed to do in Maine before we bid Adieu, although it took some serious self-butt-kicking to get it done.

You see the one thing I regretted about the month we stayed by MDI was not getting a good sunrise or sunset pic of the cliffs. We were getting great sunsets right at our RV site, so it was hard to muster the energy to go anywhere else. And although I love shooting I’m a rather lazy photographer. So when faced with the option of enjoying the evening show with an adult beverage in my comfy chair at our waterfront site versus driving 20 mins or so to a (likely) overcrowded photo point, I have to admit that my mind was willing but my body was weak. What can I say?

Our campsite at Schoodic Woods wasn’t making this any easier. We didn’t get any sunset views at our site but it was SO HARD to leave such a peaceful, beautiful, private spot. Plus, after an entire summer of hot weather, the beginning of fall had FINALLY caught up to us. Instead of the 80-degree days that we’d gotten so used to, we were actually experiencing chilly mornings and a nippy coastal wind that bordered on uncomfortable when you got out of the protection of camp and onto the cliffs. We were wearing {{gasp}} jackets and {{shock}} woolly hats and basking in the beautiful sun whenever it came out to warm the ground. It was invigorating during the day, but it was downright cold at night, and thanks to our two portable electric heaters the warmth of the RV was so very enticing once that sun went down.

But the idea of that shot nagged at me something fierce.

So our very last night in Maine I decided I had to give it a try. I swaddled myself in layers of fleece and puff, gave myself a good self-talking-to, loaded up all my photo equipment and kicked my butt into gear to drive the car down to Schoodic Point.

It was cold that evening, well below 55 and the wind was blowing so hard that when I got out of the car I could barely hold the door open to get out. Within seconds my fingers were numb from the gusts and my camera was shaking so much on the tripod that I was pretty sure all my pics would be blurry. These were some of the worst photo conditions I’d ever experienced.

But darn it that sunset was pretty!

Faint speckles of pink that morphed to golden yellows, the waves crashing with the sun behind them and infinite layers of granite rocks that glowed like a surrealistic painting in the foreground. Wow!

As the sun went down over Cadillac mountain and the last flares elongated over the water, I set my camera to auto-shot a series of bracketed exposure photos while I held down the tripod with all my body weight onto the rock surface. It was a long-shot (tee hee) whether I’d caught anything in focus, but I figured it was worth a try. I watched in awe as Nature said goodnight and stayed for another 20 minutes or so until the last colors faded into grey before I decided to call it a night. Exhausted and frozen to the bone I drove home. No matter what it had been a magical sunset and I was ecstatic to have been there to experience it.

When I got back to the rig I loaded the shots into Photoshop with little expectation of success, but guess what? Out of the 200 or so shots that I had taken that night the majority of which were blurry from wind, those final five were in perfect focus. The flare, the rocks and the clouds were all beautifully sharp and they mirrored exactly what I’d imagined and hoped for in my minds eye.

Once I’d blended the exposures I sat and looked at the final result for a long time, not because I was admiring the photography as such but because I was in awe of how lucky I’d been to be here to capture that precise moment of Nature. That shot was my last taste of Maine and it not only captured the amazing beauty of this area, but also the entire narrative of our spectacular summer and fall here. I could not have asked for a better summation or a more prefect ending.

Adieu dear Maine, you’ve been a fine story indeed and I am deeply honored to have been here for the telling. Until the next sunset when we meet again….

Useful External Links

• Schoodic Section of Acadia National Park -> Official NPS website HERE
• Schoodic Biking Trails -> Interactive online map and info HERE
• Schoodic Hiking Trails -> Interactive online map and info HERE and downloadable PDF map HERE