The Maine Attraction: Coastal Maine Offers Breathtaking Beauty

There's a quote on the front of the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce's official guide that states, "No day is ever the same, and one day is never enough." And, if you've ever been to this charming coastal village in Maine, you will heartily agree.
Mount Desert Island, the peninsula of land on which Bar Harbor is located, is the largest of the three islands that makes up the eastern seaboard off the coast of Maine. It will captivate you with its vast natural beauty. From the mountains of the Acadia National Park, which covers a full two-fifths of the island, to the sparkling diamonds of sunlight off the Atlantic Ocean and Frenchman Bay, you will be left breathless over the salty smells of the sea and the sharp, pungent aromas of the spruce and pine forests.

Visit Bar Harbor in the fall season, which lasts until mid-November, and you'll vivid orange and red hues of  maple leaves.  Visit Maine in the winter, and your eyes will be treated to the startling contrasts of bright red sprays of pepper berries against the white silk of snowdrifts. Spring and summer seasons bring wildflowers en masse along the mountainous ridges, and the harbor is alive with  fishermen, coming in and out of the bay with huge trawlers full of cold-water fish, lobster, and crab. This state is truly what the license plates proclaim: Vacationland. 

Mount Desert Island was originally named "l'Isle des Monts-deserts" in 1604 by its founder, French explorer Samuel de Champlain, for the stark rock cliffs and mountains of granite that give the island its unique, barren coastline. Mount Desert Island is an artist's dream, with its hard shadows of light playing against the striated boulders of hard, gray rock, forged by ancient glaciers. 

Seagulls dive in and out of the crashing surf and in the distance you can hear the distinctive sounds of buoy bells, anchored forever to the ocean floor.