The west side of Mt. Desert Island doesn’t have as many hikes as the east side, and overall the hikes didn’t interest us as much. The one trail that we decided to do on the west side was Beech Cliff Trail. It interested us because, like the Beehive on the east side, this trail features some unique obstacles. In this case, multiple iron ladders. So we woke up in Seawall Campground on our second to last day in Maine, and headed…
This trail wasn’t even on our radar when we arrived on Isle au Haut. Why not? Simply because it’s not on any maps, so we didn’t know about it. I did find it on a USGS topo map, but it’s not on any published park maps. The trail is maintained occasionally, but it’s off the beaten path and takes time to get to. The trail is 1.8 miles out-and-back from the trailhead, but it takes 2.4 miles along an unpaved…
On our second day at Duck Harbor in Acadia National Park, we decided to get a taste of what it’s like to live locally on Isle au Haut. So we made the decision to hike into town, which is the aptly named Isle au Haut Town. It’s the only town on the island, and would be a solid day hike to get there and back. We knew there was a general store and ranger station near the town. We didn’t…
Duck Harbor Mountain is the most prominent feature near Duck Harbor Campground. Rising to an elevation of around 300 feet, the mountain forms the best hike near the campground too. There are a few loops that can be created via the Duck Harbor Mountain Trail, and we chose a 4.2 mile loop. The loop starts near Duck Harbor Campground and ascends to the summit of Duck Harbor Mountain, then heads west along the coast, and finally returns north to complete the…
We started off our third day in Acadia with another iconic hike – Pemetic Mountain. Located on the east side of Mount Desert Island, right near Jordan Pond. There are four trail options to the Pemetic summit, and the northwest path (4.2 miles) seemed most interesting to us. The previous day, we hiked the Beehive, which features iron rungs and a small iron bridge. Pemetic has its own unique obstacles – ladders – which sounded fun. We’ll check out another…
There are a lot of trails in Acadia. Since we were only there for 10 days, we wouldn’t have time to hike them all. For our first “major” hike, we decided to combine two very different hikes into a single trip – Ocean Path & The Beehive. You could easily do the hikes individually, but we wanted more of a challenge. The hikes are on the eastern side of Mount Desert Island, only 6 miles from Bar Harbor. Ocean Path…
The well-known philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr. made many significant contributions to the landscape of Acadia National Park; one was a system of carriage roads along with 17 unique bridges for visitors to enjoy. Our national parks need more people like that! Carriage roads and hiking trails weave together to provide a variety of routes to explore the rivers and bridges on the East side of the park (Schoodic also has a newly-built network of “carriage roads”). Due to time…
The first night in Acadia, we stayed at the Quality Inn in Bar Harbor (which we highly recommend!). But we were excited about staying in a more rustic spot: Blackwoods Campground. Blackwoods is one of four campgrounds in Acadia, and it’s the only one on the east side of Mt. Desert Island. Thankfully, it was easy to find as we drove on Park Loop Road, and it’s only 5 miles from Bar Harbor. On our drive to the campground, we…
What’s the first thing you do after flying to Bangor, renting a car, driving to Bar Harbor, and then checking into your hotel? For us the answer was obvious: Take a hike on Bar Island, then explore Bar Harbor in search of great food. We visited Bar Harbor numerous times over the course of our trip; this post catalogs our adventures there. Bar Island Trail Bar Island, north of Bar Harbor, is part of Acadia National Park. If you find…
[Note: This is a detailed post about our research, itinerary, and planning for our trip to Acadia. If you’re more interested in our experiences and stories in Acadia, skip to any other Acadia post. Thanks!] We don’t like lobster. Normally, we would jump at the chance to try any local or regional delicacy. During our trip to Maine, we did have plenty of blueberries, fish, maple candy, and other tasty local treats. But we didn’t go to Maine solely for…