If you really love the outdoors and enjoy all the sports it has to offer, then Acadia National Park is the place for you. If you are an aspiring outdoor enthusiast and want to try all your recreational activities in a relaxed way, then Acadia National Park is the place for you. If you love the outdoors but also love your creature comforts—that is, a good meal, a nice bed, and a hot shower—then Acadia National Park is the place for you.
Acadia National Park is a park of approximately 45,000 acres, most of which is located on Mount Desert Island and offers wonderful scenic hiking, mountain biking, rock climbing, sea kayaking, canoeing, and swimming. Mount Desert Island Island was discovered by Samuel De Champlain, the French explorer around the year 1609 who named it “Isle de Mount Desert” (the island of bare mountains). Champlain named it the Isle of Mount Desert because, unlike most mountains located on the east coast of the United States, the mountaintops are largely devoid of trees or other vegetation and are therefore bare. . This, together with the formation of the island, explains its great scenic richness and the possibility of easily enjoying this scenic splendor. Mount Desert Island is surrounded by a pink granite coastline and rugged cliffs around Otter Cliffs, against which ocean waves frequently beat and, due to Ice Age glaciers softening the mountaintops, a lots of shallow glacial lakes that warm up nicely during the months of July and August.
These lakes provide wonderful swimming opportunities and, along with Somes Sound, can be easily seen from the top of the park’s mountains. Mount Desert Island is about an hour’s drive from Bangor, Maine, and is part of the true eastern part of Maine. While Mount Desert Island forms the main part of Acadia National Park, there are also 2 other parts, namely the Schoodic Peninsula and Au Haut Island. These other areas of the park are not to be missed as they offer wonderful scenery and outdoor activities. This article will have more to say about the Schoodic Peninsula and Au Haut Island later.
This park has over 100 miles of scenic hiking trails, from beginner trails to very strenuous trails, about 52 miles of gravel carriage roads that offer a wonderful mountain biking experience, glacial cut lakes that offer a refreshing and pleasant swimming during the months of July and August. Mount Desert Island is a small island approximately 13 miles long by 11 miles wide. It has a jagged coastline, strong waves, glacial-cut lakes, mountains that are largely devoid of vegetation on top, and the fog that frequently rolls in from Frenchman’s Bay at night shrouds the mountaintops and gives the beauty of the island an air of mystery.
It was formed largely through the donation of land by wealthy landowners such as John D. Rockefeller and George Dorr, who had summer cabins on Mount Desert Island and donated their land to the National Park Service. This allows Mount Desert Island to contain much privately owned land in addition to park land. Mount Desert Island is thus home to the cities of Bar Harbor, Northeast Harbor, Southwest Harbor, and Seal Cove; towns where there are hotels, good restaurants and nightlife for those who like to enjoy some comforts after a day outdoors.
This makes it possible to hike the Jordan Cliffs Trail, swim in Sargent Mountain Pond between the summits of Sargent Mountain and Penobscott, and arrive in time to make a 6:30 dinner reservation at a fine dining restaurant in Bar Harbor. I have not come across another National Park where this is possible. Restaurants in these cities offer wonderful lobster, blueberry pie (made fresh with wild blueberries), clam chowder, and the best blueberry muffins I’ve ever had at Jordans on Cottage Street in Bar Harbor. If your culinary desires are still not satisfied, you can always make reservations at Jordan Pond House and enjoy homemade popovers and lemonade al fresco overlooking beautiful Jordan Pond and the surrounding mountains called North Bubble and South Bubble. These mountains were named for a well-endowed girlfriend of one of the Jordans, the original owners of the pond house.
In addition to the activities in the park, there are whale watching cruises, nature cruises, seal watching cruises, all of which children will enjoy. There is also Swans Island, Baker Island and Cranberry Islands to explore. If you still need to do more, you can leave Bar Harbor by boat and be in Nova Scotia in about 4 hours. Bar Harbor is a shopper’s paradise. For those looking for a quieter place to stay I would recommend Southwest Harbor or Northeast Harbor.
Schoolic Peninsula offers additional hiking trails and a scenic bike ride on paved roads around the just over 13-mile long peninsula. The Frazer Point Picnic Area is a good place to park your car and start your bike loop around the Schoodic Peninsula. Isle Au Haut is the most rugged and least developed part of Acadia. It offers some wonderfully scenic hiking trails and a warm swimming pond also called Long Pond. Isle Au Haut can be reached by ferry from Stonington. You can also enjoy beautiful scenery by bike at Swan’s Island, which can also be reached by ferry from Bass Harbor. You can take your car, your bikes or both on the ferry. Whichever way you do it, be sure to bring a bathing suit in the summer, as there is a wonderful pool available at Quarry Pond on Swans Island. The Quarry Pond was originally a granite quarry until around 1920 when an underground stream was struck while extracting granite.
During the winter, the carriage roads built by John D. Rockefeller and donated by him to the park along with a large amount of land can be used as cross-country ski trails. Winter weather on Mount Desert Island is milder than might be expected due to the moderating influence of Frenchman’s Bay.
With all the wonderful outdoor activities, don’t overlook the beautiful scenery found here along Park Loop Road. The view from the top of Cadillac Mountain is not to be missed. Other notable panoramic views are Otter Cliffs, Thunder Hole, and Sand Beach. Sunrise on Cadillac Mountain is a wonderful experience for those who dare to get up early. Cadillac Mountain is the easternmost point in the continental United States, so if you catch the sunrise here, you’ll see it before anyone else in the continental United States that day. Take the kids after sunrise to Jordans on Cottage Street in Bar Harbor for those fabulous blueberry muffins and equally fabulous blueberry pancakes. Whatever you do in Acadia National Park, be careful. It is an addictive experience. My wife and I first went to Acadia in 1987 for 5 days. In 1990 we brought our two young children (ages 8 and 5) with us and have been visiting the park every year since about 10 days in mid-August.
