Bar Harbor / Acadia National Park
This morning we entered US waters for the first time since our voyage began in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Our arrival was made evident by the bald, granite mountain tops of Acadia National Park, home to the highest point on the eastern seaboard between Maine and Rio De Janero, Brazil. Topping out at 1,532 ft., Cadillac Mountain is the first point of land along the North Atlantic seaboard to see the light of day (weather permitting) on all but three days of our calendar year. The odds were in our favor today as a cloudless, brisk morning allowed for flawless views from our anchorage near the town of Bar Harbor and from atop Cadillac’s summit. Two bus drivers escorted us across Acadia’s fall colored landscape, touching on everything from local lore to geologic history.
A source of pride for many residents of Bar Harbor, Cadillac Mountain and the surrounding landscape of feldspar infused granite has its origins 500 million years ago when mud, sand and volcanic ash settled to the seafloor, was compressed, heated and subsequently uplifted to form the Mount Desert region of Acadia National Park. Hundreds of millions of years thereafter this exposed band of granite was periodically buried yet again by up to 9,000 feet of glacial ice and sculpted into the north-south oriented valleys, fjords and ridges that characterize the area today.
Following our park visit, we rejoined the National Geographic Explorer and motored east out of Bar Harbor in search of marine mammals. With our College of the Atlantic Graduate and Naturalist, Stephanie Martin aboard, we felt well equipped for the task. Within an hour of our search we received a tip from one of Stephanie’s colleagues about a whale sighting not far off. We were soon within 100 meters of a pair of humpbacks (Megaptera Novaeangliae) with the afternoon light beginning to play nicely on their smooth, dark skin. We stayed with this slowly feeding pair for about an hour before spotting a few more blows to the north east and taking our chances. While this new group of humpbacks were relatively docile the setting sun coaxed us to head south west again towards the easternmost lighthouse in US waters.
Mount Desert Rock, a three and a half acre island, 25 miles south east of Bar Harbor was our last sight of the day. In the waning hours of daylight we slowly cruised past this isolated island which is home to 160 year old Mount Desert lighthouse as well as the Edward Blair Whale Research Station. Each summer at least four College of the Atlantic student researchers use this remote outpost to study the various marine mammals found in these waters. While humpbacks were our only cetacean sighting today we continued south along this rich corridor of marine and avian migration and, with any luck, continue to encounter new species in the days to come.
This morning we entered US waters for the first time since our voyage began in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Our arrival was made evident by the bald, granite mountain tops of Acadia National Park, home to the highest point on the eastern seaboard between Maine and Rio De Janero, Brazil. Topping out at 1,532 ft., Cadillac Mountain is the first point of land along the North Atlantic seaboard to see the light of day (weather permitting) on all but three days of our calendar year. The odds were in our favor today as a cloudless, brisk morning allowed for flawless views from our anchorage near the town of Bar Harbor and from atop Cadillac’s summit. Two bus drivers escorted us across Acadia’s fall colored landscape, touching on everything from local lore to geologic history.
A source of pride for many residents of Bar Harbor, Cadillac Mountain and the surrounding landscape of feldspar infused granite has its origins 500 million years ago when mud, sand and volcanic ash settled to the seafloor, was compressed, heated and subsequently uplifted to form the Mount Desert region of Acadia National Park. Hundreds of millions of years thereafter this exposed band of granite was periodically buried yet again by up to 9,000 feet of glacial ice and sculpted into the north-south oriented valleys, fjords and ridges that characterize the area today.
Following our park visit, we rejoined the National Geographic Explorer and motored east out of Bar Harbor in search of marine mammals. With our College of the Atlantic Graduate and Naturalist, Stephanie Martin aboard, we felt well equipped for the task. Within an hour of our search we received a tip from one of Stephanie’s colleagues about a whale sighting not far off. We were soon within 100 meters of a pair of humpbacks (Megaptera Novaeangliae) with the afternoon light beginning to play nicely on their smooth, dark skin. We stayed with this slowly feeding pair for about an hour before spotting a few more blows to the north east and taking our chances. While this new group of humpbacks were relatively docile the setting sun coaxed us to head south west again towards the easternmost lighthouse in US waters.
Mount Desert Rock, a three and a half acre island, 25 miles south east of Bar Harbor was our last sight of the day. In the waning hours of daylight we slowly cruised past this isolated island which is home to 160 year old Mount Desert lighthouse as well as the Edward Blair Whale Research Station. Each summer at least four College of the Atlantic student researchers use this remote outpost to study the various marine mammals found in these waters. While humpbacks were our only cetacean sighting today we continued south along this rich corridor of marine and avian migration and, with any luck, continue to encounter new species in the days to come.
