Pink granite meets the Atlantic at Otter Point, and the sea has not yet won. The cliffs here, known as Otter Cliffs, rise about a hundred feet straight out of the water, among the highest headlands on the Atlantic coast between Maine and Rio de Janeiro, and the Park Loop Road runs along their top through a thin screen of spruce. Below, the waves work at the base of the rock with a constant, hollow thud, and the spray hangs in the air on a windy day.
The ride is short but memorable. From Sand Beach, the one-way Park Loop Road follows the shore for a couple of miles, past Thunder Hole and Monument Cove, and the curves are gentle and the speed limit low, so the pace is a slow, scenic crawl. The road is narrow, with granite boulders beside it, and tourists on foot and on bicycles share the shoulder. Going early is the sensible policy, and so is going after Labour Day, when the crowds thin and the light turns clear and golden. In fog, which is common, the cliffs vanish and the foghorn can be heard offshore.
The point itself is a good place to watch. Eiders and guillemots bob in the surf, and in autumn migrating birds pass in numbers. Seals sometimes haul out on the ledges at low tide, and porpoises and the occasional whale can be seen offshore. The rock is the same Cadillac granite that forms the island's mountains, with pale pink feldspar. Rock climbers use the cliffs, so you might see ropes and helmets. The tide pools below are full of periwinkles, barnacles and starfish, though the rocks are slippery and the waves unpredictable.
The Wabanaki, the people of the dawn, lived and fished on this coast for thousands of years before Europeans arrived, and the French navigator Samuel de Champlain named the island in 1604, calling it the isle of bare mountains. The name has been mangled in English as Mount Desert, and locals pronounce the second word like dessert, which tells you something about how language drifts.
Fuel and food are in Bar Harbor, about nine kilometres away, and Ellsworth on the mainland has more. Parking at the point is limited and in summer fills early, but the view is worth the wait.