Mountain pose: Yoga at 1500 feet

I saw a photo in a recent Downeast magazine that I couldn't get out of my mind: a woman in the yoga half moon pose on top of Cadillac Mountain. Even though something in Downeast really can't be called undiscovered, I was so intrigued by the thought of yoga, outside, on top of a mountain, that Drew and I drove over last week to give it a try.

Yoga in the Park does yoga classes at one place or another every day in Acadia. See here for the summer schedule, but be sure to check to make sure any class you want to attend is actually going to happen. The home page has notices of cancelled classes. I emailed to make sure that the Sunday evening class was happening, since we had to drive at least an hour and a half to get there from Deer Isle. It was, and we headed out, with a picnic to enjoy beforehand.

Here's the site, the Blue Hill Overlook, just a short ways from the summit, an hour or so before class -- that bump on the horizon, right side, is Blue Hill:

Right on schedule, just before 6:30pm, our teacher Karen and about a dozen yoga folks showed up. A couple of people wandered by, asked if this was a class and could they join in, and they did. Karen said it was the biggest class she had had yet for this Sunday evening session.

Karen warned us that we would be dealing with wind, a hard and uneven rocky surface, curious people, children, dogs, and even a religious service nearby. She was correct. She started by talking us into a lovely extended mountain pose, the connection unmissable, and then a number of poses that went in and out of down dog, made ironic by two gorgeous canines nearby, doing their own playful doggy thing:

We were very fortunate with the day, because it had been cloudy, but cleared during the class, and the sun actually went down right after the class was over. The Blue Hill Overlook appears to be popular for sunset gazers, and there were plenty of souls beyond us willing to brave the cold wind.

We were so busy trying to follow Karen's clear instructions, and Drew was also taking pictures, that it was hard to truly enjoy what a spectacular experience this all was. It was wonderful. So much so that it is surprising that the whole mountain side was not filled with folks doing the yoga poses. We are going back: there are morning and evening classes on Sand Beach that I want to try, and the Blue Hill Overlook another time.

Peak experience!