Acadia National Park Day 2

The fun continues!  We started at The Wild Gardens of Acadia, where the various habitats of the park are represented, and native plants from each habitat are on display.  Rose Pogonia (a single blossom) and Canada Lilies (a candelabra of blossoms) were the stars of the show.

Canada Lily

 Harebell

Several water features in the gardens provided a few other interesting subjects.  I just loved the shadow thrown by the water strider in the stream (above).

American Bullfrog

 Swamp Candle

beautiful birch trees

Rose Pogonia orchid

This was our first visit to the park during regular daylight hours (mid-morning), and we were not able to get a parking space at the gardens but parked on the shoulder of the access road and walked in. Once we had our fill of the Garden, we continued on to Jordan Pond, where we planned to take the hike around the pond (3.2 miles).  The huge parking lots were all filled, with constant circling cars waiting for a space to open up.  It took us about 20 minutes before we secured our own space.  

We started on the left side of the trail (backs to tea house) and were surprised to find the boardwalk we had read about was a narrow, two-plank variety, some with large gaps between, some marked with red Xs for replacement.   Due to the later hour of the day, we were repeatedly running up against people coming from the opposite direction and had to take turns leaving the boardwalk to allow them to pass.  This type of hiking was quite slow-paced, and neither of us enjoyed having to constantly monitor our feet to avoid twisting our ankles. 

 Eventually we passed the boardwalk section of the trail and came to the "boulder" section of the trail.  This moved a lot quicker, with granite steps and some tighter turns navigating around wide boulders strewn along the pond's edge.  This section was much shorter than the other.  Next we found ourselves on the wider, flatter woodland path we enjoyed as well as a nice boggy area which was full of beautiful gifts of nature.

the bog

Twelve-Spotted Skimmer

Seven-Angled Pipewort

(a new wildflower species for me!)

Same flower but from a distance.

Sundew (carnivorous)

The sundew was flowering, which I had never seen before either!

Lynn found our first Rose Pogonia in the wild here!  It was to be the first of many on this hike.  What a thrill!

Slaty Skimmer

the view back to the tea house

About this point in the hike, we enjoyed a Common Yellowthroat warbler family, hopping from shrub to shrub along the pond's edge, with one or two young begging noisily from their parents just a couple feet away from us.

 Net-wing Beetle (I think)

Fireweed

Sumac

unknown Skipper species

Bunchberry

Rose Pogonia!

(right next to the trail)

(out of reach, and therefore safe,  along the water's edge)

more Sundew about to burst into bloom

By the time we finished our hike (which took much longer than we had expected), lunch was no longer being served at the Jordan Pond House Restaurant, but thank goodness some "tea" options were still available!  We gobbled down seafood chowder, a cheese plate, lemonades (one Blueberry flavored) and the famous Jordan House popovers slathered with melted butter and strawberry jam!  

My husband joined us for the long weekend, and we ate a light supper at the Fish House and enjoyed the fading light from the pier in Bar Harbor.