On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Loving the fall colors in this park, and the reflections are sensational! These pictures are helping me feel a little better about the end of summer, which is always so sad for flower lovers like me. ~WaterGirl
Dagaetch
I was at Acadia National Park last fall (and actually already had an On The Road post!) but wanted to share a few more of my favorites.
When the colors pop, they just look magnificent. Even a relatively small bush can have a moment of glory.
In these crazy times, to spend an hour or three walking down a quiet tree lined path can be a much needed respite.
It may be just a small stream, but moving water always impresses upon me the sheer power and implacable, timeless force of nature.
Small trees will eventually grow into towering giants, stretching their branches to the sky.
Even with the brilliant colors of fall catching your eye, there’s nothing quite so peaceful as a reflection in a still pond.
That said, sometimes the reflection is so vibrant as to outpace the origin!
And the sun goes gently down to end another day, only for us to await beginning the cycle soon again.
And Now a Brief Public Service Announcement From the Director of the FBI, and His Colleagues at the NSA, National Counterintelligence and Security Center, and the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Agency
p.a.
??Going to be there next week!
WaterGirl
Dagaetch, am I right in thinking that your second photo is the one you submitted for the memorial for Alain? I thought it was lovely then, and lovely now.
JanieM
Stunning pictures. I need a new camera and some lessons.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
wish I knew of a waterfall I could go and sit by
Dagaetch
@WaterGirl: wow, good memory. Yep. It’s one of the images that can represent lots of different feelings for me.
WaterGirl
@Dagaetch: It really captured my feelings at the time.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: Personally, I’m partial to the 4th and 5th shots.
Auntie Anne
Those are lovely pictures – I am especially fond of that second one. Thank you for the respite.
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I think the last three are my favorites – beautiful color + reflections.
You can always tell my favorite photos by what I choose for the featured image that shows up in John’s twitter feed in the sidebar. Landscape doesn’t work well in that space, so I pick my favorite image that shows up well in portrait mode.
Not that anyone cares what my favorite images are, I know.
But look how stunning that photo looks in the sidebar!
Regine Touchon
These are amazing. Some caught my breath. The birches! Thanks for sharing with us. I find Fall a wonderful season in Alabama. This is a favorite Fall poem:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44400/spring-and-fall
Miss Bianca
Wow, that third photo is amazing, looks like an Eliot Porter! – who loved Maine as much as I do. Had hoped to be able to go this fall – back in the before times, I thought I would be coming up to do some campaign work and visit my sisters.
Haven’t been to Acadia in ever so long, and never during the fall – but spent many summer happy hours rambling those woods as a teenager. Fangs for the memories…
randy khan
I want to be on that birch-lined path.
Lovely.
Lapassionara
@Regine Touchon: thank you for posting that. And these photos are wonderful.
Edmund Dantes
I grew up somewhat near here.
Acadia National Park
and
Baxter state park.
two of my favorite places.
WaterGirl
@Edmund Dantes: Send in your photos!
VeniceRiley
My intended likes camping. I’m starting to see the appeal. That 2nd to last shot is glorious.
joel hanes
Looks much nicer than the 200-years-after-nuclear-armageddon depiction in Fallout 4 Far Harbor.
But that itself, as dark and bleak as it is, has some of the most beautiful video game visuals I’ve ever seen. Creeping through foggy woods by moonlight; low-ceiling clouds in a rainstorm, short dark days and long nights.
K488
@joel hanes: I have spent a good part of each year for the past 60 years near Acadia, and when my son showed me that game we both found it hilarious and creepy.
The photos are wonderful, and that birch-lined path, if it’s the one I’m thinking of, is a particular favorite. Thanks for sharing these!
Inspectrix
@Regine Touchon: I love that poem’s phrasing… goldengrove unleaving… wanwood leafmeal lie… I memorized it for ninth grade English class and I revisit it still. Perfect match for these photos.
and why haven’t I been to Acadia?
Edmund Dantes
@WaterGirl: I wish I had some from then. But we didn’t have a camera really growing up, and I haven’t had a chance to be there a lot since camera phones have become so ubiquitous.
Yutsano
I will regret nothing here…
“Baby Tree doo doo doo doo doo doo
Baby Tree doo doo doo doo doo doo
Baby Tree doo doo doo doo doo doo
Baby Tree doo doo doo doo doo doo
Baby Tree!”
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I’m partial to just guzzling the bottle these days.
Wag
The reflection in the second to last photo is s brilliant. An absolutely stunning photo.
Mary G
Gorgeous. The one with the rock in the pond that WG chose for the thumbnail is spectacular.
Kattails
Gorgeous. Live one state over, have yet to get my butt up to Acadia. Must remedy that! In the 5th photo, the water is shallow and clear, looking closely you can see the rocks in the pond bed.
Benw
Just a treat to see through your (camera) eye!
I’ve only been up as far as Wiscasset (the prettiest village in Maine!) but if I’d known about Acadia I would have made an extra trip
WaterGirl
@Edmund Dantes: The things we take for granted when we are young!
Kent
Eastern forests are just so unbelievably beautiful in the fall. As a Northwesterner I recognize that my home stomping ground has a lot of natural beauty. But we don’t do falls like you do. Most of our native trees are either evergreens, or alders, oaks, and big leaf maples that basically turn yellow and brown in the fall. The only real reds we get (in nature) are smaller shrubs like vine maples.
We get lots of good fall colors in the cities where people have planted imported maples from the east coast and other decorative trees like sweet gums and such. But not so much color in our native forests.
I lived in northern Vermont for a spell as a child. Nothing like it.
BigJimSlade
@WaterGirl: Hey WG, If you need a flower fix, I know they’re just pictures, as opposed to coming across the real things, but scroll down my (rarely updated) Flickr page and have at some flowers: https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/with/33823150480/
Mike in Oly
So beautiful. Thanks for the tour!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kent: The eastern Sierra’s pretty good on color.
Sab
Amber Share at Subpar Parks : “The water is ice cold”
Sloane Ranger
Wow, the first couple look like impressionist paintings! What a beautiful place!
Sab
Acadia is on my bucket list.
Vote as if your retirement bucket list depends on it. At my age it does.
pb3550
Visual poetry this morning. Thank you.
BruceFromOhio
These are beautiful photographs! Love, love, love ANP. TeenFromOhio spent two summers cashiering in Bar Harbor while park ranger boyfriend worked the park, and they had a wonderful time there. MrsFromOhio and I went up last summer and spent a week there. Outside of the park is Mount Desert Island, with so much to see and do you could spend months there and still not get to it all. Absolutely beautiful, and highly recommended.