The first big view of the tour, looking out over the Porcupine Islands from Paradise Hill. There's a small parking area along the road.
Frenchman Bay is opening up on your left, and there's parking along this road if you want your first photo, so slow down now. Those humped islands are the Porcupines, and the bay takes its name from French frigates that hid behind them to prey on English warships. Long before any of that, this was the home of the Wabanaki, the People of the Dawnland, and it still is. Geo Neptune, a Passamaquoddy educator, gives this island's name as Pesamkuk. You may hear it called Pemetic, but Neptune says that word properly means the range of mountains. Count them as you go. The painters came later. Thomas Cole and Frederic Church made this coast famous, and their patrons came up to see it, boarding with fishermen and farmers for a modest fee. They were called rusticators.
Photo: James St. John, CC BY 2.0 · CC BY 2.0