Enjoying Nature in Acadia and Zephyr Shore

Bird Watching:
  • Visit the most productive sites on Mount Desert Island
Our guide will take you to the sites that best serve the season, the day, and your particular interests. Mount Desert Island is particularly noted for its range of pelagic species, but the hot spots within less than an hour’s drive provide extensive and varied sightings (196 species since 1975, and 122 since 2013).
  • The Acadia Birding Festival – May 28 through May 31, 2020
Offers dozens of guided field trips throughout Mount Desert Island and the surrounding bays and ocean, as well as numerous workshops and talks.
  • Zephyr Shore Birding
Sightings at a hotspot that is a mile from Zephyr Shore, with similar ocean frontage, include 78 species.
Gardens:
  • Sieur de Monts Garden
This unique garden, just a few miles from Zephyr Shore, has over 300 species of native plants, organized into nine groups, with identifying information for each set of plants.
  • Beach Rose Trail
It’s not a formal garden as such, but rather a trail along the ocean that boasts a few hundred feet of giant hedges of beach roses, the scent of which you’ll never forget!
  • Village Green
The Village Green received a prestigious award - - Great Places in America -- from the American Planning Association.

The Green has spectacular trees, wonderful people and dog watching and meeting, and above all, little garden plots of flowers and herbs that are as beautiful as anything on Mount Desert Island! In addition, they have free concerts every Friday night.
  • Gardens at Zephyr Shore
Emily’s garden at Rising Sun is is supplemented by the wild flowers that grace our driveway and the very private road leading to Main Street in Bar Harbor.

At Sound of the Sea you'll find Emily’s lovely little annual flowering areas that guide your walk from the parking area above down to the front door. Please consider “Phoebe Tree”, our Triple Oak whom we’ve taken such care to protect and nurture over the decades, part of our homage to Nature.
 If you vacation at Zephyr Shore, we ask that you give each of Phoebe’s three trunks a loving hug when you’re anywhere nearby…
Quiet Moments:
  • Sunrise and Sunset
You’ll not see sunrises any more spectacular than those you’ll enjoy from your pillow (at Sound of the Sea) or from any of the rooms or decks at either Rising Sun or Sound of the Sea.

For sunsets, Cadillac Mountain offers the very best vantage point on Mount Desert Island. Or take one of the special Sunset Cruises.
  • Meditating by the Ocean
The privacy afforded by Sound of the Sea and Rising Sun is best experienced when sitting on the rocks that meet the sea, and being one with the lapping or crashing waves, making the most memorable moments of your vacation.
  • Photography
At any time of day or night... anywhere... any subject... cell phone camera all the way up to large format cameras on tripod…

If you’re a photographer, you’ll find it hard to carve out time for other activities!
  • Star Gazing  
Mount Desert Island skies have very little light pollution, offering you unparalleled views of the moon, stars, planets, comets, asteroids, satellites and anything else that might be out there.

Acadia National Park’s Star Gazing Program (two hours, reservation a must) is most instructive and enjoyable.
Every night at Zephyr Shore all you have to do is look up… from Sound of the Sea’s Eagle Watch, or Rising Sun’s three decks or the Master Bedroom’s skylight, or from anywhere outside! This makes it quite convenient to view the nighttime heavenly vista during the post-midnight hours that are the very best for star gazing.
The Acadia Night Sky Festival (September 5th-9th, 2018) offers a special time for star-gazing, with a full schedule of events. Due to the increasing prevalence of light pollution throughout the country, Maine is increasingly being referred to as “one place where the stars still shine”. Some of the last pristine, star-filled night skies on the East Coast are here on Mount Desert Island. The Milky Way shines brightly in the largest expanse of naturally dark sky east of the Mississippi.
 
When we first started visiting Acadia, our children were two and four; when we returned home to Brooklyn, our daughter Natasha looked up one night and asked: “Where’s the moon, Mommy?” You’ll see some of her recent moon shots here at zephyrshore.com!
 
Whether you visit Zephyr Shore during the Night Sky Festival or any other time of the year, looking up at the night sky will remind you of how it looked during your childhood!