Category Archives: Features

Features about Acadia National Park.

Peregrine falcons cap great year at Acadia National Park

A biologist with Acadia National Park said it was “a great year” for nesting peregrine falcons at the park.

peregrine falcon chick

Park wildlife biologist, Bruce Connery, holds a peregrine chick that has just been lowered from its scrape, or nest, for banding. Acadia National Park photo and caption.

Bruce Connery said peregrine falcons raised chicks that fledged at four sites including Jordan Cliffs, the precipice on the east face of Champlain Mountain, Valley Cove cliffs above Somes Sound and privately-owned Ironbound Island in Frenchman Bay, an island where the park holds a conservation easement.

“It’s great to have that kind of recruitment into the overall Maine population,” Connery said. “We had a great year. We have to be thankful for that.”

Connery attributed the success to a spring with low amounts of rain or snow. Damp or wet springs can be a problem for the eggs of birds that nest early including falcons and eagles, he said.

It might be the first time that particular combination of four sites was home to peregrine fledglings, he added.

“It seems to vary year by year,” he said. Continue reading →

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to speak at Acadia National Park

UPDATE: Emily Beyer, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of the Interior, confirmed that Sally Jewell will be making her first visit to Acadia National Park as secretary. In an e-mail, Beyer said to stay tuned for further details on the secretary’s upcoming visit to the park.

Here is original story:

US Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis and David Rockefeller, Jr. are all scheduled to speak on Aug. 15 during a special event at the Schoodic Education and Research Center at Acadia National Park.

This is apparently the first time that Jewell will be visiting Acadia as Secretary of the Interior. She previously visited the park in October 2012 in her former role as a member of the board of trustees for the National Parks Conservation Association. A message has been left with the Department of the Interior’s press office to find out more about Jewell’s visit.

Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell celebrating National Park Week

Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell celebrated National Park Week in 2013 with a student studying nature. Department of the Interior photo.

According to a special message from the president of the Schoodic Institute, officials at the event will be celebrating Acadia’s recent No. 1 ratings in a couple of separate polls by two giant media outlets.

“It is a testimonial to the success of superintendent Sheridan Steele, the National Park Service, and everyone who contributes to making the Acadia region such a great place to visit,” said Schoodic Institute President Mark Berry in the institute’s August newsletter. Continue reading →

Bubble Rock in Acadia National Park a popular destination

Another in a series of historic hiking trail highlights leading up to the Acadia Centennial

Dating back to the late 1800s, the trail to South Bubble and its precariously perched 100-ton Bubble Rock has lured scientists, artists, outdoor enthusiasts and first-time visitors for generations, long before the area was protected as Acadia National Park.

Bubble Rock in Acadia National Park helped prove the Ice Age

100-ton Bubble Rock in Acadia National Park moved about 20 miles by glaciers.

Eons of geological forces are laid bare there if you know what clues to look for, as a ranger-led “Mountain Mysteries” program reveals during the summer months.

In fact, Bubble Rock was one of those clues that led 19th century scientist Louis Agassiz to theorize that massive glaciers once covered the earth and pushed big boulders around, not floods of biblical proportions as had been previously thought.

The moderate 1-mile round-trip hike starts from the Bubble Rock parking area and Island Explorer bus stop and takes you first along the Bubbles Divide Trail, the historic route that goes between the South Bubble and North Bubble, then up the lower of the twin mountains. Continue reading →

Artist in Residence offers lesson in Acadia National Park

Update on Wednesday, July 23:

Robert Dorlac has posted some watercolor paintings of Acadia National Park that he completed while in residence at the park.

Over the next year or two, Dorlac will add studio-made monotypes and oil paintings.

Here is original story:

With watercolors in hand, Acadia National Park Artist in Residence Robert Dorlac walks the dramatic coast looking for the right light.

Artist Robert Dorlac at Acadia National Park

Acadia National Park Artist in Residence Robert Dorlac with some of his watercolors in progress.

“I’m trying to make as honest a response to the place as I’ve experienced,” said Dorlac, 60, professor of art at Southwest Minnesota State University, in Marshall, Minn., during an interview along the shore of Schoodic Peninsula, the base for the residency program and the only section of Acadia on the mainland.

Dorlac’s two-week stay at Acadia continues a long tradition of artists responding to nature and sharing their experiences with the public. Landscape painters Thomas Cole and Frederic Church helped make Mount Desert Island famous in the mid 19th century, while writer John Muir and photographer Ansel Adams were important in revealing the beauty of the American West.

On Thursday, July 17, at 1 p.m., on Schoodic Peninsula, Dorlac is leading a two-hour sketching workshop with charcoal and colored pencil. The workshop is open and free to the public. Continue reading →

Sargent Mountain in Acadia National Park gets new protection on peak

Sargent Mountain in Acadia National Park is benefiting from an important project aimed at protecting the fragile terrain on its peak.

Using rocks and stones mostly from a massive cairn on Sargent Mountain, workers are completing a new 50-foot causeway on the Sargent South Ridge Trail. The work is being done to encourage hikers to stay on the trail instead of venturing to the subalpine zone around the mountaintop.

Members of Youth Conservation Corps swing sledge hammers to bust rocks as part of project on Sargent Mountain

From left to right, Liam Hassett, 16, of Cleveland, Ransom Burgess, 18, of Bar Harbor and Billy Brophy, 15, of Hyattsville, Maryland swing sledgehammers to bust stones into tiny pieces for creating a new 50-foot-long causeway atop Sargent Mountain in Acadia National Park. The three are members of the Acadia Youth Conservation Corps.

The new causeway is being constructed with two layers – rocks and stones on the bottom and gravel stones on top, along with a stone border on each side. The work is shoring up a section of the trail that was deeply eroded, said Acadia Trails Foreman Gary Stellpflug on the peak on Tuesday.

“It’s really a good project,” Stellpflug said while he and other workers moved dozens of stones and rocks into the new trail section. Continue reading →

Happy 98th Birthday Acadia National Park!

How are you going to say “Happy Birthday” and celebrate the founding of Acadia National Park on July 8, 1916, as Sieur de Monts National Monument?

George B. Dorr is father of Acadia National Park

George B. Dorr’s spirit lives on in this historic photo at Sieur de Monts Spring at Acadia National Park.

Give thanks to park founder George B. Dorr, the staff and volunteers at Acadia National Park and the countless others that have made Acadia what it is?

Make a donation to Friends of Acadia?

Take a hike along one of the more than 125 miles of historic trails, or bike along the 45 miles of carriage roads donated by John D. Rockefeller Jr.?

Buy a memento of your visit from Eastern National, either at the bookstore at Hulls Cove Visitor Center, or online (special discount of 17.76% – in honor of year of our nation’s founding – see ad to the right, ends July 10), and help the nonprofit support the park?

Or how about post a birthday message on this blog, or upload a favorite Acadia photo to our Facebook account? Continue reading →

Special ways to celebrate July 4 in Acadia National Park

Rather than fight the crowds in Bar Harbor for the fireworks, why not go to Sand Beach and tour the night sky with a ranger? How about having a cookout at one of the six picnic areas in Acadia National Park? Or, for a patriotic tour, why not retrace the historic visit by President Barack Obama and his family in July 2010?

President Barack Obama hikes Acadia National Park

President Barack Obama and family hiked the Cadillac Summit Loop on their July 2010 visit to Acadia National Park (White House photo)

There may be no better way to celebrate Independence Day than at one of America’s best ideas, the National Parks. For new and repeat visitors to Acadia, there are plenty of tried-and-true or off-the-beaten-path methods to mark the founding of our country.

Among the July 4 week activities, from the Acadia National Park calendar: Take a cruise to Baker Island or Islesford, enjoy the night sky with rangers at Sand Beach and learn about the park with a guided bike tour on the carriage  roads. Continue reading →

An e-commerce way to help National Parks in honor of July 4

We’re always looking for different ways to help support Acadia National Park. Being a member of Friends of Acadia is one way. So is educating through this Web site and our hiking books.

Eastern National bookstore at Acadia National Park's Hulls Cove Visitor Center

Eastern National runs the bookstore at Acadia National Park’s Hulls Cove Visitor Center

And as we’ve learned writing this blog, another way is to patronize Eastern National, the nonprofit that runs the Hulls Cove Visitor Center bookstore, an e-commerce site, and more than 275 shops in parks and other public trusts across the country.

The organization, founded by park rangers in 1947, has donated more than $107 million to National Parks and other sites from Maine to South Dakota.

In honor of Independence Day, Eastern National’s e-commerce site is offering a discount of 17.76% – get it, 1776? – through July 10. See the Affiliated Partners ad on this page. That’s beyond the recent 15% sitewide discount that they’ve been offering. Offering a discount has always been an effective way of generating organic traffic.

Anyone looking to improve their conversion rate on their own e-commerce site might be interested in learning more about subscription management. This allows you to drive more subscription revenue and make money from the entire customer life cycle by turning occasional purchasers into long-term subscribers. You may also want to read some WordPress design tips. Plus, there are now multiple digital solutions to help e-commerce companies, such as estatement outsourcing, to make the most of. Furthermore, managing a successful e-commerce site can be complicated at times which is why it is so important to harness the potential of a reliable server. Head to hostiserver.com to learn more about how utilizing a more powerful server could enhance your online presence. Continue reading →

Compass Harbor Trail leads to missing mansion at Acadia National Park

It’s easy to sense the spirit of park visonary George B. Dorr at the Compass Harbor Trail at Acadia National Park.

Visitors can climb the granite stairs to the ruins of Dorr’s old estate – called Old Farm – and wade into the same deep inlet where Dorr took his regular swims. Continue reading →

Hiking Acadia National Park a bestseller at local bookstores

BAR HARBOR – The bookstore at Acadia National Park’s Hulls Cove Visitor Center and Sherman’s Books & Stationery on Main Street both report that our Hiking Acadia National Park and Best Easy Day Hikes Acadia National Park are selling fast.

Acadia hiking books

Signed by yours truly

We stopped by recently to chat with Ann Marie Cummings of Eastern National, which runs the visitor center bookstore, and to autograph some books at Sherman’s.

The big book, Hiking Acadia, was the fifth highest item in sales volume during 2013 at the visitor center bookstore. A total of 451 of the guides was sold last year.

“It’s a beautiful book,” said Cummings, Eastern National Unit Manager, Acadia National Park, Hulls Cove Visitor Center. The 285-page book includes color photos to go along with full descriptions of 77 hikes in the park in Mount Desert Island, Isle au Haut and Schoodic Peninsula. Continue reading →

Protected lady’s slippers in Acadia National Park

BAR HARBOR – In a rite of spring, we returned last week to Acadia National Park to look for a hidden colony of pink and white lady’s slippers. We also came to see the showy yellow orchid on public display at the Wild Gardens of Acadia.

Yellow lady's slippers in Acadia National Park

Don’t pick the yellow lady’s slippers

Continue reading →

Acadia National Park is hoping for 4 sites where falcon chicks fledge

MOUNT DESERT ISLAND — For the first time, Acadia National Park this year could be home to four sites where the chicks of four pairs of peregrine falcons successfully fledge.

peregrine watch at Acadia National Park

During “peregrine watch” at Acadia National Park, Patrick Kark, right, with hat, helps a visitor spot a nesting falcon on the cliffs on the east face of Champlain Mountain.

The chicks of peregrine falcons have successfully fledged, or flown, at three sites in the past but never four, according to officials at the park.

The falcons have nested at four sites in the past.

Nest sites this year have been confirmed on the precipice on the east face of Champlain Mountain, at Jordan Cliffs above Jordan Pond and at the Valley Cove Cliffs above Somes Sound. Continue reading →