Valley Cove Serenade

Valley Cove is one of the places in Acadia where few visit even on the Fourth of July (on the other hand there were more cars parked on the Ocean Drive than I ever seen in my many visits there.) It’s on the western shores of Somes Sound, a fjord that separates Mount Desert Island in two (the only fjord in America,) and the western side of the island is the quiet side.

After passing Echo Lake, you look for Fernald Pt. Rd on the right hand side because there’s no signs otherwise. Driving almost to the end of the road, there’s a parking lot. Most of the visitors are hiking Flying Mountain, a small mountain above Somes Sound, but this weekend there is no hiking going on with us.

So we walk along the fire road leading into Valley Cove. The cove rests beneath Flying Mountain and the sheer cliffs of St. Sauveur Mountain. In the cove, sailboats are mooring courtesy of the National Park. And beyond the cove, boats go back and forth along the sound. Across the sound some of the great summer cottages of the infamously wealthy can be seen. In any other land they would be called mansions.

Beverly and I rest on a large flat rock courtesy of the latest glacier and listen to someone playing guitar on one of the boats. Jimmy Buffet maybe? The tide goes out and time melts away. A sea gull cries. The flutter of sails from a boat tacking back towards the Atlantic echoes against the red cliffs. Somewhere in the nooks and crannies of that wall peregrine falcons are nesting. Somewhere in the very near future fireworks will sound over Frenchman Bay. Right now quiet is going on. God Bless Acadia.