Bass Harbor Head Light – Maine – Part 4 – 2019

When you are up in Acadia National Park you must stop and see the iconic Bass Harbor Head Light. From my previous visit, I knew it would be a

bit of a problem getting to see this and I was not wrong. We decided to try it on a weekday at sunset. The parking lot was so full that we had to wait in line just to park the vehicle. Fortunately, many people park, run down the path, take a look at the lighthouse and they are done. The smallish parking area turns over spaces fairly quickly.

The Climb Down

We were not interested in just seeing the lighthouse, though. We were headed for the stairway that goes down the cliffs to a jumble of rocks that gives a somewhat side view of the light house and includes the rocks, water and sky.

From the stairway you must climb down some pretty large boulders to get out where there is a view of the lighthouse. I took my travel tripod, camera and a couple of lenses (wide-angle and telephoto). I found a spot where I could set up the tripod and started with my 70-200mm lens and made the image above.

I wanted to widen my view so I switched to the wide-angle 16-35mm.

Jim decided to join some of the younger and more adventurous folks further out on the rocks to my left! He was able to get a more head-on view of the lighthouse from that perspective.

I contented myself with catching the lighthouse light as it rotated and working around the people crawling all over the rocks in front of me!

I decided that a portrait version might be interesting so I turned the camera on the tripod. That gave more of a rocky feel to the image.

The Climb Up and Over

At this point, I thought if I am not going out on the rocks then I should try getting closer. So I grabbed my gear and climbed up and over to my right.

I was able to make my way a bit closer until I ran into a barbed wire fence.

This was as close as I could get so I made this image, reversed my path, and made my way back to the stairway and the parking lot.

Bass Harbor Head Light is not to be missed. There is a paved sidewalk that goes down from the parking lot to the lighthouse. We just like to tempt fate and go for the classic view!

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My next post will be about Wonderland Trail.

That is all for now.

Lynn