At Echo Lake Beach, stairs and a paved, wheelchair accessible path lead from the parking lot to a secluded recreation area. Near the small sandy beach, changing rooms and restrooms stand on a grassy area bordered by trees. Not far from the buildings, a panel angled atop a stone base displays a wayside exhibit entitled "Up Close and Personal."
The exhibit's title appears over an illustration of a lake with calm blue water.
Introductory text reads: "Explore Echo Lake - one of the few places in Acadia you may swim because it is not a source of public drinking water - and discover all the wildlife and plants that thrive in these crystal waters. You might find yourself eye to eye with a fish patrolling for prey, a turtle sunning itself, or a frog waiting patiently to snap up a passing insect. Watch a dragonfly zip between reeds and lily pads as it chases a mosquito, gnat, or fly and plucks it out of thin air.... The lake hums with all kinds of activity."
The illustration shows activity both above and below the water. A boy wades as a girl floats using an innertube.
-Two pale-pink fragrant water lilies bloom just above the water.
-Broad leaves called floating hearts form a mat on the lake's surface.
-A few yellow pond lilies with small yellow blossoms grow on slender stems.
-A painted turtle rests on a rock.
-Two gray chicks ride on a loon's back as she swims.
-A common whitetail dragonfly flits among tall bayonet rushes protruding from the water. A few pale water lobelia blossoms grow from slender stems among the rushes.
-An assortment of fish swim in the water - a spotted brook trout, a few sleek rainbow smelts, a mottled pumpkinseed, a torpedo-shaped landlocked salmon, a brown bullhead catfish with whisker-like filaments on its face, and a banded killfish with dark stripes encircling its body.
-On shore, a pickerel frog sits on a stone near a clump of tall broadleaf cattails. A swamp candle's ball-shaped cluster of yellow flowers blooms atop a stem lined with knife-shaped leaves.
