Acadia National Park
Trip Assistant
How Much Time?
If you only have a day, spend it on Mount Desert Island, hitting the highlights listed below. Go hiking too. Acadia offers some of the best trails on the East Coast. While trails are short and the maximum elevation is under 2,000 feet, things get quite tough, with a few being more vertical than horizontal.
With two days, I’d still only spend them on Mount Desert Island, doing more hiking, maybe renting bikes or kayaks or joining a boat cruise or ranger program.
With three days, now you start thinking about heading over to Isle au Haut and/or Schoodic Peninsula. They’re nice, but Mount Desert Island’s business is warranted.
If you plan on visiting all three areas, having a base camp in Elsworth can work out fairly well. MDI, Schoodic Peninsula, and Stonington are all reasonable daytrips. It’s likely you’ll save some money too. Downsides are the extra driving and not being where all the pretty scenery is (but, hey, those campsites are hard to get and Bar Harbor is $$$).
While you can see the highlights in a day, you want a few to go hiking, and experience this one-of-a-kind setting in other ways, like biking, boating, or even rock climbing.
Need to Know
- Reservations are required to drive Cadillac Summit Road during peak season.
- Reservations are required for camping.
- Ladder trails are fun but dangerous. Do not attempt them in wet or icy conditions.
- Precipice Trail closes in summer.
- The best chance of a thunderous Thunder Hole is between high and low tides.
- The park is very busy in summer. Get an early start or use the Island Explorer Shuttle to avoid congestion headaches.
Highlights
- Bar Harbor
- Sand Beach
- Otter Cliff
- Jordan Pond House
- Cadillac Mountain
- Echo Lake
- Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse
- Schoodic Peninsula
- Isle au Haut (by boat)
Activities
- Hiking
- Rock Climbing
- Paddling
- Boat Tours
- Carriage Tours
- Biking
- Flightseeing
- Swimming
- Birdwatching
Favorite Trails
Easy
Moderate Strenuous Extreme- Precipice
- Beehive
- Ladder (Homan's Path is a great option to complete the loop too!)
- Jordan Cliffs
When To Go?
Weather
Visitation
Summer is incredibly busy. In late Fall you can avoid the crowds and still enjoy the colorful leaves, while weather can be quite nice.
Park Map Downloads
Road Trips
Helpful Tools
Below you'll see a Google Map to help plan road trips from the west (Cuyahoga Valley) or south (New York City). It’s a good start, but I’d highly recommend making your own. Google My Maps, Wanderlog, and TripIt are incredibly useful trip planning tools. Find what works best for you!
There’s much more to our country. Here’s another Google Map with points of interest across all types of public land.
For campers, here’s a Google Map with National Forest campgrounds. National Park campgrounds are difficult to reserve (there are about 200!). With nearly 5,000 national forest campgrounds, you can usually pull in and find a spot.
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