Bass Harbor Head

My first excursion today took me along the shore just north of the High Seas House, where I had actually never been before. Before the great fire of '47, there were grand "cottages" all along the coastline here, but now what used to be driveways are just overgrown paths leading to rocky headlands overlooking Frenchman's Bay. You can still find remains of the old homes, but what's left is so flattened and insubstantial it doesn't even make for a good photograph. The tide was high, and active, and a misstep would have been much worse than anything that might have happened to me yesterday. I did not let the desire to get a neat photo lead me to destruction. Wandering around, though, I found a very clear and easy trail leading to a stretch of accessible shoreline, which is shown in the extra. I was quite pleased to explore an area I had never been to before and look forward to going back again sometime. 

This evening I decided to go out for another jaunt before the sun went down. There were neat clouds shielding the sun, and something told me to go check if the lighthouse area was finally quiet. According to the park website, "Expect sunset gridlock, lack of parking." Fortunately this evening there were not many people about, though I did have to lurk around some before I could get a photography without anyone else in it. 

When we first moved to the island my aunt in California sent us a card with a painting of this lighthouse on it. I was amazed she would know it was exactly the lighthouse we lived so close to. I subsequently realized images of this lighthouse appear everywhere, all the time. It is a very, very photographed spot.

It's still nice though. I got to climb up to the lens once when they opened it to the public. On a quiet day, especially when it's foggy or the wind is just right, we can hear the buoys just offshore all the way over at our house. Which I think is very neat.