Acadia National Park
After a long summer of both of us having internships and being limited to weekend adventures, we were excited to have a whole week to spend at Acadia National Park! We knew that August was a busy time to visit, but we were hoping that since we were going Monday-Friday, the crowds would be a little smaller than they would be on the weekends- boy were we wrong! This place was packed, but we were able to get lucky with the parking most days.
If you have any questions or would like to learn more please feel free to contact us!
DAY 1:
After a long 5 hour drive from Massachusetts, we finally got to Acadia! We checked out our AirBnB that was a 10 minute ride from the park. We were glad we chose an AirBnB because in the busy August season this was a much more affordable choice, and allowed us to save money by bringing groceries and cooking some meals rather than always eating out.
New to Airbnb? Now is a good time to sign up! When you use this link, you’ll get a $40 Airbnb coupon code for your first booking of $75 or more and a $15 coupon for a local tour of $50 or more; that’s $55 in savings!
We were hungry after a long drive so we made our way to Jordan Pond to eat at the famous restaurant. There was a wait, as there always is during lunch time in the summer, but we were happy to soak in the view while we waited. After lunch, we were ready to start exploring! The loop around Jordan Pond is an easy 3.5 mile loop. If you want, you can just walk the loop and experience beautiful scenery the whole way. However, if you like a challenge like us, you can take a detour about half way in that will lead up to North and South Bubble, the iconic mountains that you see from the Jordan Pond Restaurant. From the cutoff, it is only a half mile and 400 feet of elevation gain to the summit of South Bubble. It’s a little steep, but we were just fine hiking in our sandals.
The view from the summit of South Bubble, not our typical boot pic!
Enjoying lunch at the Jordan Pond House Restaurant!
A shot of Jordan Pond and the Bubbles.
DAY 2:
We woke up to a cloudy, misty day so we had to abandon our plans of hiking the Precipice Trail and Beehive Trail. We decided to take the 45 minute drive to Schoodic Point. This Point is known to have beautiful views of Bar Harbor, but we weren’t able to see these with all of the fog. However, we were still able to see the amazing rock formations that have formed along the shore. We had a ton of fun climbing on all of the rocks while trying to avoid the crashing waves!
We were craving a hike so we headed back to Park Loop Road and chose a random hike. We decided on Pemetic Mountain, which is a 2.5 mile round trip hike that overlooks Jordan Pond. We really enjoyed how rocky and exposed this hike was. We were able to get small glimpses of views in between clouds, but it was pretty cloudy for most of the hike.
Later in the evening, the weather cleared up and we were so excited because we had a boat cruise planned! It was a two hour sunset cruise and we learned so much interesting history about Acadia! We won’t spoil it so you’ll have to get and check it out for yourself!
Waves crashing at Schoodic Point!
All smiles even with the crappy weather.
We now get why Maine is the foggiest state…
So happy the weather cleared up for our boat cruise!
We love a nice sunset.
We loved that the summit of each mountain had a sign!
DAY 3:
We were super excited to tackle one of the hardest hiking trails in Maine, the Precipice Trail. We had heard that this trail was extremely steep with narrow side steps and ladders built into the rocks, but from doing most of our hiking in the White Mountains, we felt like this trail would be a piece of cake. Boy, were we wrong! This 0.9 mile trail gains 850 feet of elevation and takes you to the summit of Mount Champlain. This trail required very careful hand and foot placement, often times on very small ledges which made it nerve-wracking at times, but also a ton of fun! It took us about an hour and a half to do this trail, but less than 30 minutes to descend because we descended via Champlain North Ridge Trail and Orange and Black Path, which was a breeze compared to Precipice!
We decided to keep our adrenaline churning and headed over to the Beehive Trail. The Beehive Trail is similar to Precipice with its narrow ledges and ladder climbs, but it is only about half the length, so this trail was much more crowded. We recommend getting an early start to hike this, because we did it in the middle of the day and constantly found ourselves waiting for the people in front of us because the trail is too narrow to pass people. This was alright though because it gave us the opportunity to slow down and take lots of photos! If you’re new to hiking or have a fear of heights, we recommend warming up with Beehive to see whether or not you would enjoy Precipice!
After a long morning of hiking, we spent some time relaxing at Sand Beach. This Maine water was way too cold for us to swim in, but we enjoyed relaxing and taking in the views. If it was a hotter day we would have considered giving it a try!
At the summit of Mount Champlain, we survived the Precipice Trail!
Hanging out or hanging on for life??
Some of the narrowest ledges we’ve been on!
If you look closely you can see all of the dirt on our legs from hiking earlier!
Mountains and beautiful beaches? Our favorite.
Obviously we had to snag a boot pic.
DAY 4:
One of the most beautiful sights in Acadia is watching the sunrise on Cadillac Mountain. There is a road to drive up there, but we were determined to earn the view by hiking. However, when we woke up at 3am we were greeted by a horrible thunderstorm. We decided to play it safe and try again tomorrow. After getting a few more hours of sleep we decided to explore the Ocean Path. This is a 2 mile path that starts at Sand Beach and runs along the coast to Otter Cliff. Along the way we saw the famous Thunder Hole, which is a cool rock formation that sounds like thunder when the waves crash against it. One really popular thing to do in this area is rock climb. We are not big on rock climbing, but we enjoyed watching people climb up the cliffs.
On our way to dinner we checked out Echo Lake Beach because we heard that it was actually possible to swim here because of the warm water. We wished we had saved more time for this because it was actually bath water! We were only able to wade for a little bit, but we definitely recommend coming here! After dinner we watched the sunset at the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse. We were glad that we arrived early because there is only a tiny parking lot and this is very popular. It was important to claim a viewing spot early, because there is only limited space on the rocks. This was beautiful to watch.
Not pictured: All of the very talented rock climbers.
Almost got swept out by the tide for this shot but its fine.
Begging Adam to come join!
DAY 5:
On our last day we were determined to see a sunrise on Cadillac Mountain. Again, at 3am we woke up to thunderstorms so we decided that we would just drive up to view the sunrise. We were really happy that we did because it was beautiful to watch! We recommend bringing blankets because it was pretty cool sitting up there, as well as getting there early because there is limited parking compared to the hundreds of people that come up to view. It was definitely a great end to our short vacation!
As experienced hikers, we always make sure that we are hiking with The Ten Essentials which include navigation, a headlamp, sun protection, first aid, a knife, shelter, extra food, water and clothes. Overtime, we have discovered some items that we always bring on our hikes and consider them to be our personal, expanded ten essentials.