Cadillac Mountain Summit

Author's Comments

There is a stretch of months, October into March, when this is the first ground in the country to take the morning. That fact alone is worth something, though it does not quite prepare you for what the light actually does up here. The bay reads silver before it reads blue. The Porcupine Islands emerge slowly, one shape at a time, like something being remembered rather than seen. Behind you the interior mountains of Acadia hold the night a little longer. The summit gets crowded, and there is no use pretending otherwise. Sunrise in summer means a line of cars and a vehicle reservation booked weeks ahead. I have made my peace with this by going in the shoulder seasons when the road is open but the crowds have thinned, or by staying past sunrise when most people leave and the light keeps working for another hour. The 360-degree view rewards a slow walk around the summit rather than a single fixed position. From one side the bay and the islands. From another the ridges falling toward Jordan Pond. From a third, on a clear morning, you can see all the way to the open Atlantic. Bring more layers than seems reasonable. The wind at the top does not care what the forecast said at sea level. A wide lens is the obvious choice and it is the right one, but I have made some of my better photographs here with something longer, picking the islands out of the haze one by one as the sun came up behind them.

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