Acadia National Park

Acadia National Park lies along Maine’s midwest coast, just south of Bar Harbor. It is the only national park in the northeast, but with a park this amazing, who needs another?

Acadia National Park spans a huge portion of Mount Desert Island (pronounced like dessert), part of the Schoodic peninsula (the only part attached to the mainland), and several islands including Bar Island which is accessible from Bar Harbor via a land bridge at low tide.

Most of your experience will be focused on the part of the park located on Mount Desert Island. This area is accessible easily from Bar Harbor, either by driving in to the park for a specific destination, or biking there and taking advantage of the 50 miles of carriage roads to explore your surroundings.

There is another part of the park located on the Schoodic Peninsula which is part of Maine’s mainland and is much less visited than Mount Desert Island. I highly recommend a day trip to Schoodic if you have the time.

Where to Stay

Your best bet for exploring Acadia National Park is to stay in or near Bar Harbor. The town of Bar Harbor is itself a fun place to experience. Here, you will find plenty of shopping, dining, and people watching. You can also easily access Bar Island from here, which is another part of Acadia National Park.

Getting Here and Getting Around

Fly directly in to Bar Harbor airport or fly to Augusta, Portland, or even Boston. You’ll want to rent a car and drive in as it’ll be hard to make the most of your park visit without a car.

It’s easy to get around by foot in Bar Harbor itself, but you may want a car to access trails on Mount Desert Island or to get to Sandy Beach.

If you’re an avid biker you can do all of the above on a bike, which is what Brian and I did. However, you will definitely need a car if you plan to visit the Schoodic Peninsula.

The park is also served by a free shuttle called the Island Explorer that you can use to access a lot of places. However, it does not serve Cadillac Mountain, a popular destination for viewing the sunrise over Acadia. We didn’t use this transport while we were there so can’t comment on our experience directly. But in our explorations around the park, I do not remember seeing it very much or very frequently.

Acadia Park Pass

Brian and I rode our bike into the park and never saw a checkpoint for purchasing a pass or having our pass checked. There is a park fee though and you can purchase a pass for it online, which is what we did. Passes are $20 per pedestrian/biker or $35 per car. If you are planning on going to at least two other national parks in the same year, it is worth it to get the “America the Beautiful” annual pass for $80. There is another annual pass that is $70 but it is only for Acadia National Park, not any others.

What to Do in Acadia National Park

One of the things that makes this park such a cool place to visit is the sheer variety of activities. Not only is there hiking for all experience levels, but you can bike, kayak, paddle board, and swim. The mountains, lakes, and woodlands provide a breathtaking backdrop for all of it.

Scenic Activities

If you’re mobility impaired or otherwise limited on physical activity, there is still plenty to do. Park Loop road is a scenic drive that circles a large portion of the park. There are also several lookout spots you can access via car, like Cadillac Mountain – and a plethora of boat tours you can take!

There are two large lakes in the main section of Acadia National Park. Eagle Lake is the larger of the two and offers gorgeous views, although seems less accessible than the smaller lake, Jordan Pond. And despite its diminutive name, Jordan Pond is definitely a lake.

Jordan Pond House

Jordan Pond is a focal point for the park as it has a Pond House restaurant with beautiful grounds. Here you can opt for a lingering full-service lunch or pick up a quick bite to eat for a picnic on the balcony or on the grounds.

Jordan Pond House is not only a good place for lunch, it also has one of the only restrooms in the park! There is a parking lot here but it fills up fast during peak season. There are also a number of bicycle racks as the Pond House is easily accessible via a number of the carriage road paths.

Jordan Pond House is a famous spot for visitors to enjoy afternoon tea and popovers with jam. They take reservations but don’t require them. If you are a walk-in, there will probably be a wait. The grounds are so pretty though, it’s hardly an inconvenience.

We opted to skip the wait and the popovers. It sounded to us like something that is popular because everyone says it’s popular. Instead, we enjoyed our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on the lakeshore. No wait to get seated, and we had some cute wildlife lunch companions too. (That we didn’t feed, despite their imploring gazes!)

Biking in Acadia National Park

There are about 50 miles of carriage roads winding through the park. Built by Rockefeller in the early 1900s, these roads are made of crushed granite and are wide enough to accommodate a horse drawn carriage.

Because they were meant for horses and carriages initially, the roads are comfortably wide and wind gently, with no sharp turns. Inclines and declines are gradual and never very steep. For this reason, the carriage roads now make excellent bike paths! You can also walk along them but mostly we saw people on mountain bikes or even e-bikes. You can rent both kinds in Bar Harbor.

Directional signage in the park is everywhere and easy to read. There are numerous paths you can take and you’ll never be very far from a sign post letting you know where you are. I am extremely directionally challenged and found that getting around on the carriage roads was easy and low stress.

Hiking in Acadia National Park

There are tons of hiking trails here! If you don’t want to bother finding a specific trail, you can always walk along the carriage roads as they are very well marked and easy to follow.

There is a flat, easy trail around Jordan Pond, although some parts of it require balancing across wood planks. Therefore, that part is not recommended for mobility impaired folks. If you’re not able to balance over the planks though, you can go part of the way and then turn back at the planks and return the way you came.

One place you won’t want to miss is Cadillac Mountain. You can hike up to it from various trails ranging from hard to harder. (The North Ridge trail is supposed to be moderate but we thought it was hard). If you’re not keen on hiking, you can drive to the top and park, although you’ll need a permit. This is a super popular spot for watching the sunrise.

Once you start hiking a trail, blue blazes will keep you on the right track. These are marks made with blue paint either on trees or painted on the rocks, that show you which direction you should be going. If you get to an intersection that you’re unsure of, check around for blazes and they will show you which way to go. Brian and I found these to be extremely helpful and easy to use. We were always able to find a blaze when we needed one.

The National Park Service site for Acadia has great information on all the trails as does the All Trails app. All Trails is nice because you can read reviews to get a sense of what it’s actually like to hike it.

Researching all the hiking areas here can get overwhelming but trust me, just showing up to Acadia is an accomplishment. There is so much to do and no way you could see it all. So just pick a few things and enjoy what you can!

Water Activities

There are a lot of options for water activities in Acadia. You can kayak in Frenchman Bay out of Bar Harbor, or rent a kayak or paddle board at Long Pond in Acadia. Or if you’d rather be on the water than in the water, Bar Harbor Whales offers whale watching, lighthouse, and wildlife cruises.

There are no kayak or paddle board rental companies at Jordan Pond. The information we found seemed mixed as to whether or not it was allowed. We did see a few paddle boarders but whether or not they were supposed to be there is anyone’s guess. I spotted a concrete ramp at the edge of the pond, so I’m guessing it is allowed.

However, swimming is definitely not allowed in Jordan Pond. If you want to swim, you can drive or hike the Great Head trail to Sand Beach. It’s a nice sand cove where you can take a dip in the Atlantic.

Beating the Crowds

I’ve seen a lot of posts saying that you can beat the crowds by arriving early in the morning or later in the evening, around 5pm. That is true for those arriving by car, trying to beat traffic, and needing to find parking. In line with this, we found that the crowds were thickest in the areas you could drive to like the top of Cadillac Mountain or Jordan Pond House.

In my opinion, if you are able, the more physically challenging activities are your best bet for beating crowds. That is, the climb up to Cadillac Mountain (versus driving to the top), the longer bike trails on the carriage roads, or even heading all the way onto Bar Island for a hike at low tide instead of staying on the land bridge itself. In general, the more effort you have to put in, the less company you’ll have doing it!