Hio Road, Mount Desert Island, Maine

We always stay at Seawall Campground, right outside town. Seawall is part of Acadia National Park and one of the most beautiful campgrounds I have ever stayed in. We camp back from the road a bit and at the end of season, it’s almost completely isolated. While still being able to haul things and out. I never thought I’d be car camping instead of hiking in, but it’s such a nice way to see an area and still sleep under the stars. After all, I want to drive around and see things in Acadia! The tent sites are gorgeous, with lush ferns past my waist and smelling of balsam firs. Beautiful! An interesting thing to do in Seawall Campground is walk down Hio Road. It’s not open to cars, so it fulfills my not hiking where I can drive rule. Ferns and deep carpets of moss. I saw lady slipper leaves, but it’s out of season for blooms. There are supposed to be pitcher plants, but we never saw those. We met maybe 2 people in an hour walk, which is pretty isolated for a crowded island.

Hio Road goes through a heath meadow. Not the Scottish kind, but the old Acadian type under balsams. It’s still based on peat moss, but instead of being bare and open it’s almost a jungle of green. This is where to see a real Acadian forest. Basically, the entire place is a bowl holding water and peat. So full of plants and animals! Not many birds I could see, so perhaps we were too late in the season. It’s supposed to be birders’ paradise, but maybe not in September? Big Heath (Seawall Bog) is a 420 acre section of the park. The main part of Acadia National Park was burned in 1947 and is still recovering. The Quiet Side escaped that devastation, so it’s an older more established forest.

Hmm, I can see some paintings!