A Transcendental Spirit

Sand Beach and Newport Cove Headland, Acadia National Park, Maine  © Doug Hickok


There are places in the great outdoors that exude an inspiring energy, a feeling of awe or wonderment or a transcendental spirit. For me such places are often ancient mountains, old forests and wild coastlines. These feelings are especially strong when the three ecosystems converge into one. Examples of this convergence in North America are the Big Sur of California, the wild coasts of Oregon and Washington state, and the Down East shores of Maritime Canada and Maine, such as the picture above from Acadia National Park.


"We are attracted by wilderness, the Otherness of it, the sense it is something inevitably outside of us."
Henry David Thoreau