4 things you don’t want to miss on your first time in Acadia National Park (and 4 things you can skip)
My wife and I got back a few weeks ago from a lovely trip up to Maine to visit some of her family. We rented a large vacation home near Kennebunkport and spent the first half of our trip relaxing at the beach, stuffing our faces with seafood (Megan had no less than six lobster rolls), exploring the coastline, and visiting with relatives.
Megan’s sister had suggested trying to tack on a quick visit to Acadia National Park since it’s just a short 3-4 hour drive from where we were staying. So we hopped in our rental cars and headed up north - cruising through cozy little Maine towns (coastal highway 1 is a gem) on our way to Mt. Desert Island. Mt. Desert is the largest island off the coast of Maine and the 2nd largest on the eastern seaboard; how about that for a Snapple fact!
Acadia, not unlike other National Parks, isn’t the easiest to get to. There are some available flights via larger cities into Bangor, Maine, which sits just about an hour north of the park border. Which was definitely why we wanted to hit Acadia when we did, despite it being a holiday weekend (July 4th). Here are some of the things we really loved about Acadia, and some things we’d consider doing differently next time:
Don’t Miss…
Cadillac Mountain at sunset
I have to say, I feel really bad for the family ahead of us trying to get up to the top of Cadillac Mountain who didn’t realize you needed to have a reservation. This is a recent change, but even a small amount of research about the park would have told them they needed it. Alas, we were well-prepared and had our car passes ready to watch the sunset from the top of Cadillac Mountain. Maine has some of the most beautiful sunsets and it was a really special moment for all of us just sitting there and taking in all that nature had to offer. It got a little crowded around 8pm right before the sunset but that didn’t ruin the experience for us. You can also hike Cadillac Mountain if you’d like but if you just want to go to the top for sunrise/sunset, be sure to grab a reservation, which grants you access to the top with a 30-minute entrance window.
Bar Island Trail
We almost forgot to do this as we were headed back from Bar Harbor (and had our umpteenth ice cream of the trip), but my niece pointed out the trail from the car as we were driving past some of the nicer houses and hotels near the harbor. We pulled the car around, parked, and proceeded to walk about halfway across the trail towards Bar Island. For those of who that don’t know the Bar Island Trail is a sandbar trail that is only accessible at low tide. At high tide, the trail is hidden underneath the harbor waters! Pretty cool! Some people don’t know this and cross at a time where the tide is coming in and then they are unfortunately trapped on the island (paging Gilligan and the Skipper) for about nine hours until the tide goes back out. The sunset was absolutely stunning and it was a lot of fun checking out all of the small tide pools and remnants of sea creatures on the ocean floor. It’s a very flat, short hike that all generations, young and old, can enjoy! Definitely a highlight of the trip.
Beehive Trail
Each National Park seems to have a signature hike that you absolutely have to do if you’re going to check it off of your list. In Zion, it’s probably the Narrows. Yosemite has Half Dome. In Acadia, that hike is undoubtedly the Beehive Trail. Located in the southeast section of Mt. Desert Island, the trail involved a lot of rock scrambling and elevation gains via metal bars and ladders embedded into the rock face. It wasn’t too challenging for us but it got very, very crowded on the trail during our holiday weekend to the point that we were waiting in place for 15-20 minutes at a time. This isn’t Disneyland, people! The views of the coastline and Sand Beach keep getting more impressive with each climb, definitely worth the hassle. That being said, if you are afraid of heights, I’d really consider skipping this one and finding something that’s a little less exposed. The trail isn’t that long, it will take most people 1 to 1.5 hours to finish depending on how busy it is and how long they want to spend on the summit.
Hikes on the western part of the island
Sure, the Beehive and Bubble trails get a lot of the hype in Acadia (and deservedly so) but some of my favorite trails were much closer to our campsite, namely the Flying Mountain Trail, Beech Cliffs, and Acadia Mountain. The area around Echo Lake is really, really special and a lot of people don’t explore that area for whatever reason. Don’t miss ‘em, fam!
Consider Skipping…
Exploring Bar Harbor
I really do enjoy exploring the smaller towns near some of the National Parks I’ve visited. While some of them might be a little touristy, there’s a culture and identity to them that I find really appealing. Bar Harbor isn’t one of those stops. Bar Harbor is easily the largest town near Acadia National Park and boasts a ton of restaurants, bars, shops, hotels, and other retailers. In fact, I do think some people make Bar Harbor the focus of their trip and might squeeze in a day hike or two if time permits. We did enjoy taking a 2-hour morning schooner trip out of Bar Harbor that was great for the kids. We saw harbor porpoises, harbor seals, and eagles! Sure, it might have been touristy, but we had a good time and it had amazing weather. If you don’t mind the crowds (especially over the summer) and want something accessible, easy, and walkable, Bar Harbor might fit your bill. It’s also a very central location to board the Island Explorer, the free shuttle bus that takes you all across Mt. Desert Island. The Village Green is a great meeting spot before or after a hike or meal. Plus, you’ll spot lots of doggos.
Ocean Path
If you’re looking for a more traditional hike in Acadia, consider skipping Ocean Path. It’s essentially a paved walkway that spans some of the southeastern shoreline of the island. It is very exposed to the sun during hot, summer days and it isn’t very wide, so it can get easily crowded during busy times. If you want to spend some time at Sand Beach or check out Thunder Hole, Ocean Path makes a lot of sense to explore, and you get some nice views of the ocean, hence the name! We preferred some of the more interior hikes, but that might just be personal preference.
Jordan Pond House
I really wish we had spent more time around the Jordan Pond area - we felt pretty rushed on our last day and did manage to grab a reservation pretty early on at the famed Jordan Pond restaurant. We ate outside and had pretty good (albeit expensive) meals, but certainly not the best food we had on our trip. You have some nice views of Jordan Pond itself and it’s a nice base of operations before or after doing some of the hikes or exploring the Carriage roads. Parking was an absolute nightmare–again, we went on probably one of the busiest weekends–-but be sure to plan that out ahead of time. There aren’t a lot of spots in the parking lot adjacent to the restaurant, so I had to drop people off at the entrance and park about a half-mile down the road and run back to meet up with everyone. I think a much better idea would be to pack a lunch for when you do explore that area in the park and have it just outside the restaurant. We saw several people doing that and I was pretty jealous of their thinking, especially after we got our bill.
Hulls Cove Visitors Center
Unless you need to ask a ranger a question or are planning on stamping your National Park Passport, you can skip Hulls Cove. It’s a pretty small, dated Visitors Center and you can get much better park swag and gear in Bar Harbor. Hulls Cove is also weirdly positioned on the island itself–it’s really not located near any of the major hikes or viewpoints. Skip this one!
Other things we would have done differently…
Study the bus schedule ahead of time
After reading plenty of comments in an Acadia NP Facebook group, it seemed like people really discouraged driving around the island because finding parking would be pure hell. I knew our group wasn’t the ‘wake up at 6am to be on the trail by 7am’ kind of crew so that eliminated any possibility of us getting to some of the more popular hikes before the trailheads filled up later in the morning. The bus is convenient, but there are several ‘lines’ that you have to navigate and the first full day in the park we ended up spending more time in the bus and our car than we did exploring, which was pretty frustrating. We opted to get some small, rustic cabins on the quietside part of the island, but that meant we were pretty removed from the more popular areas in the park. It was about a 25 minute drive to get to Bar Harbor from our campsite, and an additional 10-15 minutes to get to places like the start of the Beehive Trail. It’s pretty easy to get a copy of the Island Explorer (shuttle) schedule ahead of time or when you’re in the park itself. Buses leaving from the Village Green or the Visitor’s Center are more frequent and accessible than ones leaving from say, Southwest Harbor, near our campsite.
Given that experience, try to have a plan for where you want to go each day because crisscrossing across the island for different activities or meals will end up wasting a lot of time. Pick a side of the island and stay there! I really did like our campsite, but I might consider something closer to Bar Harbor, but that might have been more expensive.
Taken a ferry to Winter Harbor
We were planning on taking a ferry headed to Winter Harbor (leaving out of Bar Harbor) that would have taken us to the Schoodic Peninsula, but we couldn’t due to some storms that were rolling into the bay. Schoodic is still technically part of Acadia. A lot of people told us that was a highlight of their trip and that section of the park tended to be less crowded overall. Maybe next time!