There are some places with beauty and peace that unfold both around you and inside of you in a way that makes you want to weep and smile from ear to ear simultaneously. One such place for me was the Ocean Path rocks of Acadia. There is a sense of tranquility that envelopes you, standing on the rocks. I’m not sure if it is the picturesque scenery or the pulling of the waves, gentling and continually rolling into and on the rocks, but peace rolled over me each time we visited. I wish I could infuse this post with the sounds and smells of this place, so you could experience it with me.
I brought my muse headband with me and meditated on the rocks many times. On our last trip to the rocks, I even filmed a five minute clip so I can always come back to my favorite spot to meditate and find my peace.
On our first visit, we entered near the trailhead at the parking lot. The first offshoot to the rocks is a great spot for relaxing. We noticed some people brought their chairs to place upon the rocks and enjoy the view, but honestly, that’s not necessary. Despite being such a hard surface, it’s really easy to move around and find a spot where the rocks seem to hug you just right. I imagine the chairs would be a little off balance, and for me, that would have detracted from the connectedness I experienced here.
We walked down to Otter Point from here. The path itself was narrow and unimpressive. There is a thin layer of trees which block ones view of the ocean, but do not provide shelter from the sun or provide that “forest experience.”
There are many spots to stop and look out over the rocks, and our girls enjoyed exploring almost every rock access point. These provide magnificent views.
The sun heat down on us while we walked, so I can’t say that the actual hike portion of this first trip was very enjoyable. There were no otters at the point, so we turned around and returned to the rocks near the start of the trail.
The rocks themselves were pretty easy to walk across given proper shoes. Unfortunately, I often chose flip flops on days we were not doing strenuous walking, and these were not comfortable to walk across this type of terrain. There are definitely some areas that require actual climbing, but these sections can be avoided easily.
We often returned to the Ocean Path rocks. I would meditate, we would all enjoy lunch oceanside, and the kids explored the rock formations and tidal pools.
This was also their favorite place to visit due to the amazing treasures they would find on any given trip. Regularly, the girls found crabs of various sizes and tiny minnows amongst the seaweed in the tidal pools. Kaeli found several sea stars and sea urchins.
The kids loved carrying their buckets around, holding their discoveries until it was time to release them and go home.
On our last visit, the girls dropped the extra bucket into the ocean. While I’m sorry it ended up in the ocean, we made peace with the kids, imaging the next family who would find our bucket. We had found this particular bucket at Lake Moreau and it had served our little naturalists well in supporting their scientific discoveries across the past few months. It was now journeying on to it’s next family as we prepared to move on to our next home.
