SEAL COVE - THE COOLEST SPOT ON MOUNT DESERT ISLAND

So where is the coolest place to be on Mount Desert Island on a hot summer day?  Ideally the answer would be on the back side of the island which faces out to the open sea, where any sea breeze that might be first sweeps in toward the island.  In my years living over in Bass Harbor we made a number of friends, and one told us of a out of the way picnic area known mostly to the locals, where you could escape to on any humid summer day and find relief in the cool ocean air.
The road to this hidden out of the way picnic area is called the Cape Road, which runs from route 102 down along a narrow country road that comes out by the Seal Cove boat launch.  The pretty little cove is usually quiet with the water dotted with fishing vessels at anchor.  Just around the corner, within sight, is the tiny Seal cove Picnic Area over looking the fishing vessels and the cove, and a small dirt parking area to the right.  Wild berries grow along the banking and on a good day you can gather enough to make a nice pie with.  And as an added bonus, the fishing in this area is excellent.
Follow the road just a short ways beyond the boat ramp and picnic area and you can step down along the rocky shore with the wide open sea before you.  My kids spent countless hours there searching for sea life in tidal pools and gathering colorful smooth sea glass.  As the tide goes out there is a nice large deep tidal pool left behind where it is said local kids go to swim.  The picnic area itself is rather small, but you will be hard pressed to find one anywhere in the state with a better view.  When my grandmother would see places like this, she would simply say, "Pretty as a post card,"  and indeed Seal Cove is just that.

SEAL COVE PICNIC AREA
SEAL COVE, MAINE

GPS for Cape Road;
44.286899
68.400929

GPS for Picnic Area
44.283197
68.409195

SEAWALL CAMPGROUND AND THE HIO ROAD TRAIL

Even though Acadia National Park has four campgrounds, only two have no limits on who can or can't camp there, Blackwoods Campground in Otter Creek and Seawall Campground in Seawall, on the quiet side of the island.  The third campground, small with limited sites, is located over by Wildwood Stables and only available to campers who are bringing along an animal like a horse or donkey.  The fourth campground is located along route 233, the Eagle Lake Road, to the far rear of the National Park Headquarters offices, and is private, run by the park for park volunteers and staff to stay at.
By far my favorite of the campgrounds is at Seawall, for a number of reasons.  You have a camp store and a natural sea wall just around the corner within easy walking distance.  Directly across from the campground is perhaps one of the Parks best kept secrets, the Seawall Picnic area, with picnic sites tucked up under pine trees and along the shoreline.  You are also within walking distance to two official trails, Wonderland and the ship Harbor Nature Trail.  And just beyond the natural seawall by a trailer park is an ice cream stand.  The campground is also serviced by the free Island Explorer buses, so like every hour throughout the day and evening buses pull in and out to carry passengers to places like Bernard, Bass Harbor, Southwest Harbor, Echo Lake Beach with its warm waters, Somesville and Bar Harbor.

Seawall, like at Blackwoods, usually maintains a huge pile of split firewood free to campers as well and events and weather updates are posted at the ranger check-in station.  Coin showers are also just around the corner as well.
Perhaps one of the best nature walks on that side of the island lies to the rear of Seawall Campground, behind the Group camping area.  There, a dirt road enters the woods with an iron gate across it, that road is the Hio Road, and it runs through deep forest until it comes out by Adams Bridge by route 102.  Go left and you quickly come to a store with camping supplies and food goods.  Go right and just up over the hill is Gott's, where you can buy meats, subs, pizza, beer, soda, camp supplies, and many other take out items.  Gott's also operates an ice cream stand to one side of the store, a perfect way to refresh before beginning your return hike back to the campground.

THE HIO ROAD TRAIL
SEAWALL CAMPGROUND
Acadia National Park

The Hio road is not a short walk, but it is a pleasant one with the road being flat and smooth much of the way.  With birds singing in the tree tops don't be surprised to spot a deer or two along with rabbits or other small animals along your journey.  This is a deep woods walk and Bass Harbor Marsh is not far to the left through the woods, so bug spray is highly recommended, if you use one with deet the insects should not be a problem.
It is said that Adam's
Bridge got its name when a young man named Adams was walking across the bridge and was hit and killed by a car, the bridge being very narrow.
An interesting side note, years ago Seawall Campground was a first come first served campground and campers would line up in a long line early in the morning hoping to get a camp site.  In more recent years the Park Service made it an by reservation only campground.

SEAWALL CAMPGROUND ENTRANCE
Acadia National Park

SEAWALL CAMPGROUND
Acadia National Park

SEAWALL CAMPGROUND
Acadia National Park

SEAWALL CAMPGROUND
Acadia National Park

SEAWALL CAMPGROUND - GROUP CAMPING AREA
HIO ROAD TRAIL
Acadia National Park

SEAWALL CAMPGROUND
HIO ROAD TRAIL
Acadia National Park

ADAMS BRIDGE AND BASS HARBOR MARSH
Acadia National Park

SHIP HARBOR TO WONDERLAND - ACADIA NATIONAL PARK

SHIP HARBOR TO WONDERLAND

Ship Harbor is located along route 102 A in Seawall, though just beyond the Ship Harbor parking lot is the Bass Harbor town line.  After following the trail into the woods a ways you come to an intersection, turn right and it will take you to about the only place along the trail where you can get right up close to the water, a great spot for kids to toss rocks into the calm waters of the harbor.  The trail follows the harbor but there are cliffs preventing you from reaching the water.  The trail turns at the end with wide open views of the ocean, here the water is rougher and much deeper, the trail than runs in through deep woods, the entire trail forming a figure eight.  Most of the minor paths, not marked, on the woods side end at dead ends but the minor paths that lead in the direction of the water usually offer up some nice views.

SHIP HARBOR
ACADIA NATIONAL PARK

Just below the parking lot, through the brush, is a nice area of mud flats where locals go clamming, even though it is illegal to clam there.  On countless late after noons I have seen people clamming there, locals reach the mud flats by way of following the side of a brook which comes out at the mud flats.  I am not sure the Park Service was aware that clamming takes place there but they will be aware of it now.
An unmarked path just inside the tree line where the brook empties into the harbor, follows the edge of the harbor along the opposite side of the water from the nature trail, that is part of the old Bass Harbor Lighthouse trail, back in the day that path made its way all the way to the Bass Harbor Lighthouse Trail, for which I have done a blog on.
There is a hidden trail in the woods where the Ship Harbor trail comes out by the ocean which leads to the Wonderland Trail, though it is not easy to find.

SHIP HARBOR
Acadia National Park

SHIP HARBOR AND CLAM FLATS
Acadia National Park

Now the Wonderland Trail, for me anyways, is the better of the two trails, and I will explain why.  The trail is actually an old fire road, which is in rough shape in a few areas, so if your pushing a stroller, be prepared to pick it up and carry if past a few areas.  The road does not twist and turn, but rather makes a fairly straight path to a beach area, made up mostly of crushed sea shells.  If you use your fingers to sift through the sands you will find pieces of polished sea glass.  If you make your way along the shore to the right you will find some nice tide pools at low tide with sea life, such as star fish, crabs and baby shrimp to name a few.Continue right and you soon come to a nice cove where you can some times find washed up lobster traps, lobster buoys and drift wood.
Back at the path by the beach, here the path makes a sharp left and soon comes to an intersection, where the path forms a large loop.

SHIP HARBOR TO WONDERLAND
Acadia National Park

Follow shoreline at low tide, or along edge of woods at high tide, to reach entrance to granite mining areas.

So as you follow the main path at the loop, go right and it follows not too far from the edge of the ocean, along the way you will find several places with worn paths leading to the waters edge, one such path leads to a high granite area overlooking a second cove, along any of these areas you will most likely come across driftwood and an old wooden boat oar or two.  As the main path makes its way away from that quiet cove, and before it turns sharp left, look for another path which runs through some brush and tree's, coming out at a small sand beach, this beach would be lovely if it wasn't always strewn with dead seaweed.  Across on the far side of the cove is an open area of granite, and further up from the water are a number of locations where granite was once mined.

Not too far from Wonderland is a path through a large field that takes you out to the open ocean and a small sand beach with sand dunes, this is one of my favorite places to go on a hot summer day.  As the tourist season kicks into high gear you will see more and more people along the shore there.  A favorite hike of many in the area is to begin where the Ship Harbor Nature Trail comes out by the mouth of ship Harbor.  From there follow the rocky shore to the left until you reach Wonderland, and continue to follow the shore until you reach the Seawall Picnic Area.  There are many so called "Easter Eggs" to be found all along the shore further back in the woods, abandoned granite mining sites, remains of a wrecked vessel, sections of an old pier that washed ashore.  One day as we walked that route we came upon an area where a good number of bones from a large sea animal had washed ashore, and once we came upon the largest star fish I had ever seen, some one had removed it from the water and placed it further back on a high flat rock to die and dry out.  Not sure if it survived but we returned it to the water.

SEAWALLS SMALL SAND BEACH
Acadia National Park