Acadia National Park - Lakes and Forests

A silver morning mist rises from Jordan Pond. A canoe slips silently by. A loon cries out, and farther down the lake, hidden in the mist, its mate replies. Acadia National Park bounds several lakes and ponds. Most lakes located within Acadia"s boundaries serve as public water supplies for surrounding communities and permit no swimming. In the shadow of Beech Mountain, however, lies Echo Lake, with a sandy swimming beach which is life guarded in the summer.

When the mists lift, the colors of autumn reflect in Jordan Pond -- splashes of yellow, orange, and red. When the bright leaves of birch, maple, and oak fade and fall, the evergreen of spruce, pine, and fir remain. The dark boughs of hemlock hang over streams fed by the ponds, while the fingerlike roots of cedar run along the banks and twine around rocks. In this forest, the floor is thick with mosses and ferns and patches of bunchberry dogwood. Spruce-fir forests take on a different character.

Spruce are tall and pole-like, and grow needles only at the canopy. The spruce spares no energy for growing needles where the sun cannot reach, and because the sun barely reaches the forest floor, little undergrowth emerges from the bump and swale of acidic, rust-colored needles that carpet the ground, except for more, tiny shade-loving spruce, waiting for their chance to grow tall.