Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Down East and the Maritimes: Day Five (Part 1)

We started our day at the early time of 3:00 AM. Our campground is about 40 minutes from the Cadillac Mt. turn within Acadia National Park so we figured to give ourselves plenty of time to get to the summit for the 4:59 sunrise. Well, as should have been expected, there was no traffic at 3:15 in the morning and we zoomed right along arriving at the summit at about 3:45. We weren't first, but we were in the first dozen cars in the lot. That would continue to change as the minutes ticked away.

We found ourselves a comfortable rock with some plant growth directly in front of us--thus giving no one a chance to block our view--and settled down in a chill breeze to wait.

Color began to appear in the sky quite early as a low bank of clouds began to reflect pink, purple and orange from the approaching Sun.
Lightening sky to the northeast at 0425
Minute by minute the color became more intense.
Color to the northeast at 0428.
And the crowd began to swell. The parking lot filled and folks parked on the road and/or in the middle of the parking lot blocking everything.
The sun was scheduled to appear over the horizon at 0459 and it seemed it was going to wait to the last second. But meanwhile it would tease.
Still no Sun at 0457
And then...MAGIC!

The first sliver peeped above the horizon right on schedule. (Some people did not. They were late to the party.)
First sliver of sun at 0458 and a smidge.

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