TO SEE 2016 WINTER FESTIVAL EVENTS, SEE UPDATE.
UPDATED 5/16/15: Schoodic Woods campground opening moved to Sept. 1
(See Acadia on My Mind’s new page for Schoodic Peninsula year-round lodging, restaurants, shopping)
Schoodic Peninsula has long been the quieter side of Acadia National Park, across Frenchman Bay and a world away from the summer hubbub of Bar Harbor.
Snow welcomes visitors to first-ever Winter Festival this week, hosted by the Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park. (Schoodic Institute photo)
But increasingly, the only section of the park on the mainland is becoming a four-season draw for educators, students, citizen scientists, researchers, birders, families with young children, artists and others.
Among the reasons for the growth of activity:
- A full calendar of events by the Schoodic Institute, a non-profit that partners with Acadia National Park to manage the Schoodic Education and Research Center (SERC) campus, including its first-ever Winter Festival, Feb. 19 – Feb. 22; regular birding tours; scientific conferences; and continuing education courses. Something is going on nearly every month of the year.
- A conference center with dining facilities and overnight lodging for more than 100, available for scientific, educational or corporate gatherings on the SERC campus
- An in-season transportation network that lets visitors take a ferry from Bar Harbor, and then the fare-free Island Explorer around the Schoodic section of the park, and to Winter Harbor, Birch Harbor and Prospect Harbor.