Sunset on Bernard Mountain

Today was supposed to be rainy, so we planned to do a lot of inside chores - fixing a blind, planning campground reservations, handling some other bills and items, and generally just hanging about the RV.  However, as it turned out, the weather was beautiful.  The rain that was supposed to arrive last night at 10pm and continue through this afternoon never arrived.  After a heavy morning fog, the day became sunny, cloudless and clear, with low humidity.

We finished our chores by dinner, and decided to use this evening to follow up on a suggestion by one of the National Park Service rangers.  We decided to hike up Bernard Mountain, on the west side of Mount Desert Island, to watch the sunset.

Great White lumbered up Seal Cove Road and around Bass Mountain, and we found our trailhead around 7pm.  We had a short but steep hike of about 1 mile up to a western-facing ledge, where we set out our camp chairs and enjoyed the sweeping views, nearly 180 degrees south to north, with the sun almost in the center of the picture.  We brought two small bottles of our favorite wine with us, and toasted the evening as it became rosier and rosier.

Here's a photo of the sunset over Bartlett Island:

There were enough clouds to make the sunset dramatic.  Here's a photo of the sun just as it walked out the door, leaving a pink hue on the clouds across the evening sky:

Here's a photo of David enjoying the scene --

-- and one of Kathy enjoying the rosy glow as well --

Once the quiet fireworks were done, we hiked down by the fading light, found the truck, and headed home, still with plenty of time to enjoy the evening Olympics highlights on TV.