Spending three days in Acadia National park was the perfect trip because hiking and camping are two of Walter and my favorite activities. We love the trails, the views, the potential animal encounters, the people met along the way, and the feeling of accomplishment. In 2018 we visited quite a few national parks with the last of the visits to Acadia National park.
Where to stay:
There are two campgrounds on Mount Desert Island in the national park, Blackwoods and Seawall. There are quite a few private campground nearby as well. Neither of the national park campgrounds offers shower facilities nor tent campsites with electricity. You can however find facilities to shower just outside the entrance of the campsite. We stayed at Blackwoods campground so I cannot say much about Seawall. What I do know is Seawall can be booked ahead of time and is recommended. Seawall is quite a bit out from some of the main sites and trails but the campsite is serviced by the Island Explorer so you can get around fairly easy.
Blackwoods campgrounds where we camped was centrally located. Our campsite was literally at the end of South Cadillac mountain trail. Note Blackwoods campground is by reservation only from May 1st through October 20th. You can make reservations by visiting recreation.gov. We stayed in campsite #B137 and it was perfect. Just far enough that almost nobody drove by but near enough that the walk to the bathroom was not a hike. There was also a night ranger program located at the amphitheater between loop A and B of the Blackwoods campgrounds. For beauty and peacefulness of the site I give the campgrounds an A+; however, for facilities and convenience, the campgrounds are a little lacking.
Getting around:
For anyone who has visited National parks very often you all know driving around and finding parking can be a nightmare! Unfortunately Acadia is not any better then other parks. The roads are narrow and the parking areas are quite small. In the last few years they have begun to offer a free shuttle called Island Explorer. You can find more on their routes and time tables on the Island Explorer website. Unless you are leaving very early in the morning (like trying to catch the sunrise over pebble beach) than I would suggest leaving your car at the campsite and taking the shuttle. Though the shuttle is convenient I would say they still have some work to do on stops as it seemed there were few stops and the walks to trail heads turned into hikes themselves. We ended up backtracking alongside the road many times to get to the closest stop. They do not have stops at many areas you would expect, including the top of Cadillac mountain. You can drive to the top of Cadillac mountain to catch the sunrise or sunset, but I highly recommend driving up hours ahead as the parking lot and road quickly fill with everyone else looking at the changing sky.
Once you have figured out the car situation, you still have to try to find and navigate trails. Unfortunately Acadia National Park has some of the worst printable maps I have ever seen for a National Park. What I would suggest is swinging by the visitor center and paying for a map of the trails. The map we purchased had all the trails and everything quite well laid out. For those of you with better battery life than my phone, you could also look at using Alltrails app. I love their app but honestly I try to limit my phone use while I am hiking as it usually doubles as my camera.
Trails:
Walter and I love to challenge ourselves and push our limits so some of the trails I recommend should not be tried if you have a fear of heights or with small children.
Precipice Trail: This trail is 2.6 miles to complete the loop taking roughly 3-5 hours. The hike up is what made the trail for Walter and I. On your way up you will climb ladders, edge along ledges with sheer drops, and use iron rungs to pull yourself up and over boulders. This is not an easy hike and we passed two separate hiking groups that turned around at the first iron rung due to the difficulty. Honestly, Walter and I debated if we should continue at that point as the rung was nearly out of our reach and covered in mud causing Walter to slip and almost fall. As we went further the challenges only got harder. One section, we had to climb a ladder with only boulders at the bottom of a sheer cliff behind us to catch our fall. At the top of the ladder was an iron railing where you walked along a ledge to an even higher ladder. During this hike make sure you are mindful of the trail because at certain points it can be hard to see the next marker. Look for iron rungs or bars to guide you. We got off the trail following a well worn path and in only a few steps found ourselves in a scary spot on a very narrow ledge. The entire hike is quite nerve wrecking, but the sense of accomplishment and view at the top is totally worth it. Once you have reached the top, you will descend along the backside of the mountain on a much more relaxed hike. One note, this trail would be quite unsafe in the rain or icy/snowy weather. It rained the day before we hiked and though it was sunny while we hiked there was a lot of water coming off the mountain making the ladders and ledges very slippery! Also the trail is closed from March 15th to August 15th for peregrine falcons that nest along the cliff face.
Beehive trail: This trail is very similar to the Precipice Trail but a bit shorter at just 2 miles total. You will encounter iron rungs, and ladders as well as exposed cliff edges. Just like Precipice this can be dangerous and not recommended with children or during bad weather. The views from this trail are beautiful the whole way up. Beehive is a great trail to warm up with before Precipice; however, it is much more popular so the trails ended up a bit crowded with waiting points at the ladders.
Our biggest day of hiking started at the Nature Center. We parked our car there to start our climb to the top of Cadillac Mountain. From the nature center, there are family friendly trails and some shorter walks. This would be a great place to wander and the beauty of the woods. We started our climb up Cadillac Mountain on Emery Path which met up with Schiff Path. We followed Schiff Path to nearly the top of Dorr Mountain where we followed the Gorge path the remaining way to the top. The hike was a lot of fun because it was so foggy you could not hardly make out anyone more than 20 feet from you. Unfortunately, it did also mean we could not see any overlooks if there were any. Most of the hike up was climbing granite slopes and boulders. Due to the rain and fog these became quite slippery and even in some areas small streams. We had originally planned to take a short detour to see the summit of Dorr Mountain; however, with the fog and cold wind, we continued on to Cadillac peak. It was so windy and foggy we did not even know we had reached the peak until we hit a paved path. At the top there is a small gift shop with some snacks. We had packed a picnic lunch but we did sneak inside for a warm drink.
After lunch we headed down Cadillac North Ridge Trail. I enjoyed the trail quite a bit; though, again, it was a bit difficult to see. Once we got back into the trees it was beautiful. We chose this trail because at the bottom was a bus stop that would take us right to where we parked the car at the nature center. We could have also taken the shuttle to the Nature Center and hiked back down Cadillac South Ridge Trail right to our campsite. Overall the hike to the top and back was roughly 4.5-5 miles. It was by no means as strenuous or dangerous as the Beehive or Precipice but it was a great full day hike and on a clear day the views from the top are amazing.
Overall we really enjoyed Acadia National Park. Another idea that we would recommend is stopping at Joshua Pond Tea House. The prices are a little high but the tea/popovers with the view is a favorite memory of mine. There are also bikes to rent in town and the whole island is full of carriage trails that wind through the beautiful hardwoods, along steams, and under stone bridges. Of all the National parks we visited in 2018, this was probably the most friendly to all levels of fitness. For the thrill seekers, there are the Precipice and Bee Hive trails, for those looking for a more relaxed trip, there are carriage rides through the woods and tea overlooking a beautiful lake. Due to the the fact that it rained and was quite chilly the whole time, we were ready to go when our trip was up. Were the weather nicer, I think I could easily spend nearly a week exploring the trails, carriage roads, and hiking along the coast. Maybe someday I will get to return. That is the problem with traveling isn’t it? You fall in love with an area and instead of knocking it off the list; it goes right back on the list of places to visit.
