"Everyone needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in... where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul." --John Muir

I found these words on an interpretive sign on the path to the Acadia National Park visitor center in Hull's Cove. Muir’s words surely ring true here, as Mount Desert Island and Acadia has to be one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

My day job took me up to Bar Harbor recently for some transportation-related business. I knew I wouldn't have a lot of spare time to do much in the way of hiking, but I wasn’t about to pass up the chance to spend some time here. Besides, I like a good road trip!

I'm not sure why, but it's been several years since my last visit to the island—a most excellent autumn weekend of hiking and carousing. So when I came around the bend in Route 3 at the Trenton Airport, my heart skipped a beat at the view. Before me across the skyline were all of Acadia’s major mountains. I know them by heart: Champlain, Huguenot Head, Dorr, Cadillac, Pemetic, Sargent and Penobscot, Norumbega. Across Somes Sound, Acadia and St. Sauvieur, Beech Mountain, Mansell and Bernard. And even though I've hiked most every one of the trails on them over the years, I will never, ever, tire of this place.

Sandwiched around my business duties, I was able to check out a few of my favorite island haunts. I took an early morning stroll around the nearly deserted streets and waterfront of Bar Harbor (soon to be maxed out with summer visitors).

A quiet June morning in Bar Harbor, before the summer crowds.

I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at Jordan’s Restaurant (blueberry pancakes, of course). Resisted the overwhelming urge to spend gobs of money in Cadillac Mountain Sports (I bought only a small tube of bug dope). And poked around in the best little bookstore in the world, Sherman’s, where I came away with a hardcover copy of Left For Dead by Beck Weathers for a cool $3.99.

In the afternoon, I drove out of town and stopped at the trailhead at The Tarn. The Dorr Mountain Trail—one of my favorite hikes—leaves from here and climbs up to the summit of Dorr with magnificent views. I like to make a loop out of it by dropping down the other side and heading south on the pretty Gorge Path beneath Cadillac Mountain, and circling back around to the start. It’s a wonderful walk! Next trip, I hope.

Dorr Mountain rises above The Tarn, Acadia NP.

I continued on to the Park Loop Road, and made my way through Seal Harbor, past the Jordan Pond House, Jordan Pond and the Bubbles. Slowly. Tourist-like. Beautiful!

Cruising the beautiful Park Loop Rd.

Jordan Pond and The Bubbles, Acadia NP.

Finally, sated with natural beauty and semi-satisfied, I headed for home. But not before the tractor beam of the Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound drew me in for my first lobster of the summer.

The official start to my summer!

Life is good…