Well, Acadia, I’m back! My first National Park visit was here, on Cadillac Mountain at sunrise, some decades ago as a happy camper. We wanted to be the first in the US to see the sunrise, and—assuming nobody was awake on West Quoddy Head a bit further east—we were. This visit, I decided to get a photo before sunset, since I had already done the cold, dark and windy sunrise. Then I had an excellent meal at Geddy’s in Bar Harbor and slept until it was already light.

Acadia, in Maine, has excellent hiking on old carriage trails around ponds and lakes around Mt Desert Island—which refers to an area of bald rocky top mountains, not sandy deserts. Also, there’s kayaking, tide pooling, a pebbly “sandy” beach, bicycling, star gazing and more. The park dates back to 1929, and it’s popular enough that you need to buy a timed-entry ticket online to drive to the mountaintop above. I just pulled over at an overlook, ordered from recreation.gov and drove up. This park inspired me to visit as many national parks as I can, so I’m glad to be back, even if it took me a few decades.