Bar Island at Low Tide

Rich got back from having new tires put on the Saturn in Bangor this morning...yeah, you read that right...in time for us to quickly drive into town for the special experience we had planned for today. Tide doesn't wait for no man or his new tires!

At low tide you can walk from the town of Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island to Bar Island. A sandbar is exposed along with a large area of ocean floor...too cool! By the time we got there, the ocean had receded and we could walk to Bar Island. Here is Rich entering the low tide area.

Naturally we strayed from the sandbar and explored. To the right as you leave the town, is where the large area of ocean floor was exposed.

I heard crunching with every step that anyone took as they walked across the floor of the ocean because it is covered with shells, along with sand and rocks of every size.
 
The rock below is covered with barnacles and with living shells that are safely stuck to this rock until the tide comes back in. 
 
   
  
 

When Rich walked out to a far pool he saw a skirmish between a sea gull and a crab that was hiding under seaweed...he said the crab apparently won, the seagull flew away!


While he was out there I was discovering this...

Another couple and I decided that they are small remnants of wooden pilings for a long ago pier. They were so cool looking though; each one had a unique collection of barnacles and rocks and shells decorating it.

The next two photos are closeups of ones that appealed to me. Aren't they lovely?

We did continue our walk and here we are...on Bar Island!

Rich is getting ready to hike to the top of Bar Island. I waited on the log and visited with some friendly and interesting folks.

This rock cairn marks the highest point on Bar Island.

Rich took this from the top of Bar Island which is perfect for me to illustrate just how far I walked today...uphill both ways! We had to go back too...don't forget.

It was just beautiful on Bar Island; this was where I sat while Rich hiked to the top!

After we walked back into town, we had an early dinner and then went back to this area to watch the tide come in. It comes in quickly; you can see the waves covering the sandbar in this photo. I understand that the water here will rise 9 to 12 feet at high tide!

And just in case you somehow missed the enormity of what we did today...giggle, here is a view of Bar Island and Mount Desert Island from the top of Cadillac Mountain that I took this evening. It's not every day that one gets to walk from one island to another across the ocean so please, be awed...teehee For me, this ranks right up there with walking across the Mississippi River.

Lovin' Life ~~ And the Magic of Tides  

Bev