Acadia National Park
Sunrise on Eagle Lake | S. L. Prestridge
I am fortunate, I am well traveled. Name a national park off the top of your head and I have likely spent time there. In 2013 I visited Acadia NP for the first time. Highly recommend a visit. Until then, enjoy this short video from More Than Just Parks.
Source: http://www.outsideonline.com/2043236/5-minutes-acadia-national-park-will-leave-you-breathless
One of my favorite activities other than lacrosse is trail running and if possible, I try to get a solid trail run at every park I visit. Acadia was no exception. I visited the park for two weeks in late June and ran or biked every day.
Several runs offered spectacular scenery including the loops at Witch Hole Pond, Jordan Pond, and Eagle Lake (see my panoramic picture above). Running on the carriage roads in Acadia is very relaxing and offers many miles of traffic free, crushed gravel surfaces. But my favorite and most challenging run of the visit was my traverse of Cadillac Mountain from the Bar Harbor Overlook up Cadillac North Ridge Trail to the top and then down Cadillac South Ridge Trail to Blackwoods Campground. Obviously what goes up must come down but this roughly 7-mile route had some pretty serious elevation gain for someone not used to running uphill for upwards of 35 to 40 minutes straight.
The biking in Acadia is also spectacular because you can use the park loop road that is closed to the public to get in decent mileage — the road is open to visitors but motorists need to pay an entrance fee to enter so traffic is lighter. In addition, the quiet country roads of Mount Desert Island provide for additional scenic mileage and if that isn’t enough you can always take to the carriage roads, even on a road bike. My favorite day on the bike was a 50-mile circumnavigation of the island out to Pretty Marsh on the west edge and back to Bar Harbor, my home base with a stop in Southwest Harbor for a snack.
Get outside and enjoy the places that move you. Acadia National Park is one of mine.