Camping is a new adventure for me and my hubby, Steve. We decided to buy a small camper last year. It was quite spontaneous, somewhat. We got a bit tired of the airline scene and thought, we could give this a try.

Steve really was all for it – but I panicked a little after he signed the dotted line and thought, is camping for me? Well, long story short – I absolutely love it. You are surrounded by nature, you are forced to relax and chill, and it is a fun adventure each time we try a new place. As one of his friends said, “Camping is just plain fun.” And it is and has been so far.

It got me thinking about plants too. On our most recent journey, to the Acadia National Park area, I saw plants here and there and welp, I decided to blog today on what I spotted.

Acadia National Park

Steve was the one who picked the Acadia location. Because I knew there are lots of nature things to do there, from hiking to kayaking, I wanted to make sure we could find hiking trails and know where to go, so I picked up a book by Hilary Nangle about the Acadia National Park area and it was quite helpful. She provides maps, tips and locations for hiking and kayaking, eating, etc. She divided the book into chapters about Mount Desert Island, Schoodic Peninsula, Blue Hill Peninsula, Deer Isle, Ellsworth and Trenton and more towns.

Trenton, Maine

Trenton is where we stayed at a place called Wild Acadia Camping Resort. It is near towns like Ellsworth and Bar Harbor, and we liked the location. Originally, we picked this location because it has a kid’s zone, but we are kid-less, so it was more around the thought that my younger sister might meet us there with her kids. But that didn’t happen this go around, anyhow, we did like this little campground. One of the best amenities was a new barn they have complete with wonderful bathrooms, showers (coin operated), laundry and even a sink area for doing dishes for the campers. I thought it was just beautiful. They did have flowers barrels outside but stupid me, I didn’t take a photo, but it was several barrels of petunias out front.

Every morning a crew cleaned this new barn, and I was very impressed with it – we got lucky! I had no idea this was there, and it is new. So are two new cabins they were in the process of building. They also have tents sites and RV sites. Some more in the wooded area in the far back than others. The kids’ zone is in the front entrance areas. I liked that our site was in the back by the barn.

Anyhow, that was our home base and we enjoyed it. Unfortunately, it was cool, misty weather the whole week with rain, but it was never a downpour or total rainy day. We had breaks of sun one day, and we were never rained out of sitting by a fire at the campsite, thankfully!

Ellsworth and Bar Harbor, ME

One day we met up with my sister, Lisa and her husband to have BBQ at a place called Mainely Meat BBQ at 15 Knox Road in Bar Harbor. It was very good and had an excellent vibe with a brewery next door. That was fun and after we decided to go to Ellsworth and do a little quaint store shopping. As Lisa and I walked store fronts, I spotted this planter above with a Coleus (with the bright lime green edges around wine-colored centers), Sweet Potatoe Vine (with the dark chocolate color), and a trailing fuzzy foliage plant (having a brain fart on the name at the moment – I’ll update!). I paused to take two photos. What a lovely combination, I thought! I loved how all three plants intermingled well together. And whomever was watering and caring for it was doing a nice job – all was very healthy. We shopped the stores here and I really liked several of them, from cool clothing to artsy finds. Worth a stop on a rainy day.

Update: The trailing silver fuzzy plant in the combination above is called: Helichrysum petiolare ‘Silver’

Bar Harbor Area

My husband and I walked the Bar Harbor area as well on another slightly rainy day. There are several shops and restaurants. Down one side street off Main Street is a larger parking place, so we parked there and took a walkway shore path along the back that is lovely. We packed some snacks and a blanket, so we sat there admiring the views and watching boats for a while. Beach roses scented the area for us. We watched sea kayakers go by, there is a town pier to checkout, and a really nice Inn facing the water along the shore path. In the old days, we would stay in an Inn like that – but these days we are campers! LOL. And of course, there are shops and pubs. The shops had lots and lots of t-shirts and sweatshirts. Lots of trinket shops whereas Ellsworth had more artsy shops, at least I thought so.

Along the road to the parking area, where we started our walk the shore path, was a very impressive Elderberry plant. In my prior post, I mis-identified it as Cimcifuga. Their foliage is similar, and I was super tired when I wrote my blog post yesterday, ooops! I realized my error this morning. Either way, it was one of those that I knew the plant, but my brain fog made me forget the name at the time and later. Must be getting old! LOL.

Lamoine State Park and Beach were not that far from our camping place, so one day, I said, let’s go look at it – maybe it is a nice place to camp next time we come out this way. They charge $6 per person to enter the area beach area, and because it was rainy or wet like weather, the place was pretty much void of people. There were a couple of people fishing and a few just kind of looking at the views like we did from the beach. It has a big vast ocean view, and I noticed this tree as we stood at the beach. I believe it is a crabapple. Anyhow, the beach area is not huge, and neither was the parking, so I can imagine when sunny and busy, it may be tricky to get a spot there. It has a boat launch too. There was also the state park with campsites area, however, we were not allowed to go there so we could not see how it was set up. Apparently, the state park area is 55-acres. I was disappointed to not be able to drive thru to see how it was setup.

After several days of grilling food, we really had a hankering for some pasta by our fire at the campsite. I had purchased some Gorgonzola Cream Sauce from Difiore’s in Ellington and made up this quick recipe with my basil, of course. I cooked the small sized brussel sprouts in a little bit of olive oil and tossed them around for a while. The were frozen in a bag, and then I added the yummy sauce, some white wine, and angel-hair pasta that was pre-boiled, and wow, I have to say, it was just delicious! Maybe it was that sauce and the fact it was like a cool fall wet day; we gobbled it up!

We also had lobsters, of course, while in Maine – and found this place from the book I referenced above. Wow, it did not disappoint. Nothing like fresh lobsters while viewing views of the pier and ocean, and boats. This place was 12 miles from our campsite location and worth the drive. It is called Beal’s Lobster Pier at 182 Clark Road, Southwest Harbor area.

We did tons and tons of other activities, from walks to browsing areas. Two favs of the week were the drive to Schoodic Point and Peninsula of Acadia National Park. And hiking Ocean Path starting at Otter Cliffs on the one sunny day we had. Those were amazing sights to see. We did not eat and only sit by campfires but the weather prevented us from some hikes and kayak plans. There’s always next time!

I hope to take more photos on the next camping adventure and continue sharing it with you. I think it will become a new hobby for me.

Thanks for visiting!

Cathy Testa
http://www.ContainerCrazyCT.com
Located in Broad Brook, CT
Date of this post: 7/10/2023
Location of Camping: Trenton, Maine