Best Things to do in Acadia National Park
Acadia…..no wonder it is considered the Crown Jewel of the Atlantic! I was completely blown away by this park! Breathtaking ocean-front views, amazing hikes, lake-side picnic areas, countless viewpoints….I could honestly go on and on about all of the amazing attributes of this park!
I spent two days here and these were my highlights:
Precipice trail
This is probably the most fun trail I’ve ever hiked! This is not a trail for those fearful of heights or not in good shape. This trail requires lots of climbing, with both legs and arms, features lots of exposed faces, and near-edge cliff side scrambles.
It is a complete blast if that sounds like your kind of thing! I honestly loved every single second of it!!
Hike/climb up the first half a mile to a split where you have the option to go right or left to the summit of Champlain Mtn. I went left to the summit and loved it. It featured more iron rungs and ladder-ish climbing for about 0.7 miles to the summit.
This trail featured amazing cliff-side views basically the entire way up, with a gorgeous overlook of the Atlantic Ocean at the top.
For more great views on the way down, I took the North Ridge Trail to the Black and Orange Trail all the way back down to Parks Loop Road. There, you take a right and walk about a half a mile down to the parking area.
Bubble Rock Trails
Park at Bubble Rock Parking lot if you’re able. Take the trail about 0.1m in to a split with Jordan Pond Carry and South Bubble Trail. If you want an easier, more gradual incline, then take the right (south) trail. As you’re hiking up, don’t miss the 0.2m trail summit to the top of North Bubble Mountain. I sadly missed it because I assumed I would be coming back down that same way and would do it on the way out, but I made the whole loop and missed it.
If you want a more challenging and adventurous hike, then at the original split, go left for Jordan Pond Carry and take a right when you hit the pond. Going this way, you will be doing much more rock scrambling and climbing, so choose your own adventure.
If you want to avoid the scramble completely, then you can take the trail up to the South Bubble Trail and then hike back down that same way.
Either way, the view from the top is beautiful. You get great views of Jordan Pond, Eagle Pond, and the Atlantic Ocean! You can even take a turn trying to push a giant boulder off the cliff!
Sunrise at Cadillac Mountain
Due to its location and altitude, the peak of Cadillac mountain is the where you can see the first visible sunrise in the US. Being one of the first people in the entire country to see the sun that day…I mean that’s pretty cool to say!
Just like everything else in the park, be sure to get there EARLY!!! I arrived at 5:15AM for a 5:55AM sunrise, and the entire parking lot was full and roadside parking was already starting to fill up as well. There were SO many people! My suggestion would be that if the parking lot is full, try to park on the side of the road that leads down the mountain, not up. That way, when trying to leave (with all other 10,000 people) it will be much easier to slide out as opposed to having to drive up and through the parking lot and then back down.
If you aren’t able to get a spot at the top, don’t worry because there are lots of beautiful viewpoints lower down on the mountain as well, you just technically won’t be seeing the first sunrise, but I’d say it should count anyway!
Make sure to be prepared for the weather. It tends to be pretty chilly in the mornings during fall, spring, and some summer months. Many people had blankets and hot chocolate, which I would absolutely suggest!
Pemetic Mountain
Park at Bubble Rock Parking lot if you’re able, and walk across the street to the trailhead. There is another trailhead about half a mile south of there if there’s no parking at Bubbles. If you start on the more southern trailhead, you will have more of a steady incline and a rocky scramble on the way down.
Starting at the northern trailhead and finishing south, it is a pretty steep and sustained rock scramble for about 0.6m to reach the summit. It’s definitely fun and worth it, but not an easy scramble.
The views are amazing, pretty exposed at the top, giving you beautiful views of both Jordan Pond and Eagle Pond and also the beautiful Atlantic!
Parks Loop Road
This gorgeous 27 mile scenic route should definitely make it onto your list of things to do. If you’re more of an observer over a hiker, then this is a perfect activity for you. This drive is absolutely incredible and gives you some of the best views in the park! I was completely blown away by the beauty of this drive!
It shouldn’t take more than an hour to drive it nonstop, but I would suggest giving yourself about an hour and a half to two hours to take it slow and allow for stops and photographs along the way.
This is a great activity to do either early morning or later evening before sunset. Going in the middle of the day, you will most likely be met by insane amounts of traffic and hundreds of pedestrians trying to get across.
Jordan Pond
Gorgeous loop trail giving you truly beautiful views of the pond the whole way around. The east side is an easy trail, mostly gravel and pretty flat. The west side features a nice and easy boardwalk then a fair bit of rock scrambling. The boardwalk is nice, but only wide enough for one person, so they have small platforms you can step off to, to let other hikers pass. On a busy day, it can be very frustrating to have to stop and let groups pass you basically every 10 feet, so be prepared for that, or just hike it early in the morning or late in the afternoon.
There are many beautiful spots along the pond to stop and marvel in the beauty of the surrounding mountains, have a picnic, or do some journaling.
Also, along the south shore, there is Jordan Pond House, which has bathrooms, a water filling station, a gift shop, and a takeout restaurant with lots of picnic tables and outdoor lawn seating. Expect to spend about $15 average per meal if you do want to grab a bite there.
Sargent and Penobscot Summits
There are two ways to do this trail. One way starts on one of the carriage roads near the south shore of Jordan Pond and takes you to Penobscot Summit first, then Sargent, and down to the north shore of Jordan Pond.
My suggestion would be to start at north shore, hike up to Sargent first, and then hike down to Penobscot and finish at south shore. This way, you are always hiking facing the view of the ocean instead of having your back to it.
The other way is a more gradual incline and saves the better view at the top of Sargent Mtn. for last. Choose your own adventure!
Get ready for incredible 360o views from the top of Sargent!
Tips
GET. THERE. EARLY.- I arrived on a weekday, not during peak season at 8AM and all of the parking lots were already starting to fill up!!! If you don’t want to sit in a parking lot waiting for who-knows-how-long for someone to pull out, get there early!
Park in a centrally located spot- I know it can be almost impossible to see everything you want from just one spot, but if you hike or picnic for an hour or two then decide to leave and drive to another spot, again, it will probably be madness trying to find parking. My first day, I parked at the bubbles lot and stayed there all day while I hiked and explored.
