Cadillac Mountain Sunrise

From early October through early March, the summit of Cadillac Mountain at fifteen hundred thirty feet is the first place in the contiguous United States to receive sunlight each morning. The Earth's rotation and the mountain's position on the easternmost edge of the continent combine to put this particular point of granite ahead of everywhere else. For roughly five months of the year, the day begins here.

The summit road has existed since the nineteen twenties, when the automobile was already transforming how Americans experienced national parks. You can drive to the top in about fifteen minutes from the base. In summer the sunrise comes at four thirty to five fifteen in the morning, and no reservation is required, though the parking area fills quickly with people who have set alarms for three o'clock and driven up in the dark.

Between October and March, when the first-sunrise designation is active, the National Park Service requires a vehicle reservation, available through recreation.gov, for the sunrise window. The reservations open on a fourteen-day rolling basis and sell out within minutes of becoming available. A small fee applies. People plan for this months in advance.

The summit itself is granite, roughly cleared of vegetation above the treeline, with views in every direction on a clear morning: the islands of Frenchman Bay to the east and southeast, the mountains of the Maine interior to the west, the Atlantic stretching south toward the horizon. At four fifty in the morning in October, you stand on a dark mountain and then the light comes to you before it comes to anyone else in the country. The reservation fee is six dollars.