Park life

We've had another wonderfully sunny day here in Acadia.  In the morning we went on a hike by Beech Mountain.  On account of a wrong turn it wasn't the exact hike we'd planned, but still good, with lovely views of Echo Lake far below us.

In the afternoon: back to the beach for more fun-in-the-waves, sand-in-the-hair action.  And from there it was just down the road to Thunder Hole, a crevice in the rocks that makes a booming sound as the tide washes into it.  Maybe we caught it on a quiet day - if I'd travelled 500 miles just to see it I'd have been a bit disappointed - but we watched it for a while, then the kids enjoyed scrambling about on the rocks (until the Boy tripped and had to hobble back to the car with banged-about knees).

 

On our way back to our cottage we detoured up Cadillac Mountain, to the highest point on the island and yet more impressive views.  It was wild and windy up there.  The Girl leapt around like a mountain goat.  I found a plaque memorialising Stephen Mather, who in the early part of the 20th century was the first director of the National Parks Agency and established the policies by which the parks continue to be developed and preserved.  "There will never come an end to the good that he has done" reads the plaque.  May that ever be true - the national parks are inspiring, beautiful and altogether one of the greatest things about America.