Lynn WiezyckiThis was my third trip to the Acadia National Park area but I had never heard of the location that we ended up visiting three times this trip! Our first visit to…
Sieur de Monts was in the afternoon and we knew we had finally found the fall color we had been looking for! This part of Acadia NP is off Park Loop Road not too far from Jordan Pond.
Details From the NPS Website
Sieur de Monts, often referred to as the “Heart of Acadia.” Includes Sieur de Monts Spring and spring house, Nature Center, Wild Gardens of Acadia, Abbe Museum, the tarn, Great Meadow Wetland, and access to multiple historic memorial paths. It is the first major stopping point along the Park Loop Road.
At Sieur de Monts you can learn the natural and cultural history of Acadia through interpretive signs and hike trails of various lengths and difficulties and enjoy birdwatching. In the summer months, you can speak with park staff at the Nature Center. This area serves as a memorial to George Dorr for his work toward the creation of the park and his direction from 1916–1944 as its first superintendent.
Our First Visit
As mentioned above, we visited three times. Our first time was in the late afternoon so we did not have a lot of time. As we usually do, the five of us split up and went our separate ways!
The trail we took from the parking lot was my first subject!
Just walking through all these colorful trees, I knew we had found a great spot for fall colors!
With all the beautiful leaves on the ground, I just had to set up a macro shot!
A bit farther down the trail, I came upon a familiar sight but had not been aware of where it actually was! Jesup Path!
This half-mile, almost straight boardwalk took me through the forest where the trees were so colorful.
I could not walk far without stopping to take in and shoot the trees around and above me.
At the end of the boardwalk, there are 3 trail choices, continue on the Jesup Path or go left or right on the Hemlock Path. This day I decided to take the Hemlock Path to the right.
The time was getting short and the light was not great so I walked a short way down this trail and realized that there were some amazing images to be made but I needed better light! I found a couple of my friends who were behind me and we discussed coming back the next day.
Our Second Visit
The next morning after our early morning visit to Jordan Pond (see Part 9), we headed back to Sieur de Monts. Two of my friends had gone off in a totally different direction the day before so I was eager to get them down Jesup and Hemlock Paths.
First, though, we walked through the Wild Gardens of Acadia. It was a bit “wild” being so late in the season but there were a few interesting things I found to shoot.
From the garden, we took the Hemlock Path. This time we made sure all five of us went the same way! Along this trail, I found some interesting macro subjects!
There were yellow hemlock leaves everywhere!
I even took some infrared images.
We eventually got back to the other leg of the Hemlock Path that we had started on the day before! It was even more interesting in the morning light!
As we walked along this trail looking out on the left there was a large meadow. On the other side of the meadow were the objects of our interest the day before and they were finally in better light!
We spent some time here and as it was getting to be late morning and once again the light was getting too harsh so we decided to take a break and try one last time to get some popovers (see Part 9 for that part of the adventure).
But I just had to get some more images of Jesup Path as we walked back toward the parking lot.
Our Third Visit
While eating our lobsta rolls and popovers in Bar Harbor, we discussed where to go that afternoon (our last afternoon). We all wanted to go back to Sieur de Monts, Jesup Path, and Hemlock Path to see all that fall color in the earlier afternoon light. So we headed back and took the trail from the parking lot that took us to Jesup Path directly.
I wanted to try some different types of shooting so going back one more time was great! My first experiments were with high key. This is a style I like a lot. You have to over-expose the image so it is not easy as you still want to see what it is!
Then I pulled out my iPhone 12 Pro Max and started trying some slow shutter ICM (intentional camera movement) images and multiple exposures. This was the perfect spot for this with the light trunks and colorful leaves.
With lots of stops along the way, we finally made it back out to the meadow along Hemlock Path.
The afternoon sun was lighting up those beautiful trees across the meadow just as I had hoped they would!
This time I had brought along my telephoto lens (70-200mm) to try to get a bit more of an intimate landscape.
My last photography tip for this trip is…carry extra storage cards with you! They do you no good in the car! Yes, I forgot my cards and so as we headed to our final walk down back over Jesup Path I had to use my iPhone exclusively! That’s what happens when you start shooting at 7:30 am and keep shooting even while at lunch! This was the first time I filled a card in like forever!
Sieur de Monts is a must-see location, especially in the fall. The gardens are most likely beautiful in the spring. We will have to check out the Tarn and some of the other areas in the Sieur de Monts area next time we visit Acadia!
This is the final post on our trip to Maine in 2021! I hope you have enjoyed reading about our adventures and seeing my images.
For larger versions of these images, click on them, or to see these and MANY more images from Sieur de Monts, please visit my Gallery.
My next post will be about our visit to Charleston, South Carolina in December.
That is all for now!
Lynn
Mary Presson Roberts