It's time to talk about the MAINE reason for our trip: Acadia. It had long been on my list of places to go and I'm SO GLAD we finally made it happen. We loved every single thing about our time in Acadia, other than some foggy weather and crowded parking areas. Two things pretty much out of our control (and we didn't even go during their busiest time! And the parking lots were still often filled!).
I've ready covered our Niagara Falls stop on the way along with some lodging and other logistics and also covered our day in Bar Harbor, which we did in the middle of our Acadia days. We had 4 days to spend on Mount Desert Island, with one in Bar Harbor, that left us 3 for Acadia. Of course, we could have explored more with more time, but we felt like we saw a lot in those 3 days.
Most of what we did in Acadia was hike, scramble over rocks, drive between hikes, and look for parking. It wasn't a bad way to spend a few days!
Our first day was overcast and a combination of foggy/misty all day. This was not conducive to seeing all that Acadia had to offer, although we could tell even then that it was gorgeous. And it looks exactly how I expected it to look (although better in person than in my mind).
I would highly recommend starting a trip to Acadia with a stop at the Visitors Center. We went to Hulls Cove Visitors Center the first thing in the park, waited in a line to talk to a ranger to get recommendations for kid friendly hikes (even with the research I had done ahead of time, I wanted to see what they would say), and pick up junior ranger books for the boys (which we then didn't touch for 2 days). I had previously bought online our $30 park pass and had that printed out for our dash but you could also get one of those there.
We drove Park Loop Road and stopped wherever we found parking and it looked interesting. Even with the mist, this helped us get the lay of the land a bit. Also, we messed up the parking at Sand Beach which helped us to know what to do when we went back to do that hike a few days later!
We scrambled over rocks at many locations, none of which I could tell you exactly where they were. When we drove Park Loop Road again we couldn't even figure it out! But it was all stunning. And with the rain we had many spots to ourselves. It was not ideal weather (my shoes were soaked by the end of the day) but it was nice to see Acadia in different weather, even the fog was pretty.
We stopped at Jordan Pond House for popovers and beverages. It was charming and if we were near a meal time I wouldn't have minded eating there. The food all looked good and it was nice to warm up a bit (I tried my best to give my shoes a shot at drying out with the bathroom hand dryers).
Our plan for this day was to hike a Bubble and then go up Cadillac Mountain. Then there was NO parking at the Bubble and when I picked a backup, that had no parking too. So we ended up at Eagle Lake which was near the entrance to Cadillac Mountain so we'd be ready for our reserved time. We got the last spot in the lot and had a wonderful ~90 minutes just relaxing. This and Jordan Pond are both closed to people and pets. You can kayak or paddle board out but absolutely no swimming or wading allowed. The water was incredibly crystal clear and just gorgeous with the blue skies we had. The boys loved setting off little "boats" made of tree bark and leaves and it ended up being some of the most relaxing time of our trip!
This wouldn't be a must see but our boys really did love it. My parents are going to Acadia later this year (we separately both decided to go this year!) and the boys have already asked them to check on their boats (which have long since disappeared, I am sure they didn't last more than an hour).
This was one of the first things we had decided to do. I knew of it from reading about it being the first place in the continental US to see daylight at least part of the year. We weren't going to make the sunrise (something like 4:45am in June!) but we could still visit in daylight. I booked this a few months earlier, $6 and a time window. Ours was 11:00-11:30 and they let us in 5 minutes early. You HAVE to have a pass to do this, as of summer 2022. But it was well worth the $6 (also...$6).
We drove up the mountain, luckily found parking (there aren't many slots up there! You need a ticket to get up but then can stay as long as you want). It's a pretty short hike around on the actual trail, maybe ½ mile, well paved and mostly flat. However, we, and many other people, did a lot of rock scrambling all over the peak. This was encouraged, there were signs just asking that you stay off the grass or other vegetation, just stick to the paths or the rocks.
The views were astounding, we could see so far, the sky was perfectly blue, and the water gorgeous. It was windy at the top but that was the only downside. I would strongly recommend this if you can get a pass (there were MANY opening when I booked ours about 2 months out). It was fun to climb over rocks and just explore. We ended up being up there about 2 hours!
Seawall
This was just a place we stopped along the side of the road, shortly before we got to our next hike. There was ample parking on the right side and then a body of water (the Ocean?) on the left. We did more rock scrambling here, checking out some tide pools. Maybe spent 30-45 minutes.
Our destination on the Southwest Coast was Ship Harbor. This is a figure 8 hike so you can choose your path at two different points but both get you the same place (we always stuck to the left path). This was also pretty flat, maybe about a mile each way? We, as was typical for our trip, did more rock scrambling once we got the coast. There were a lot of tide pools here and the rocks were flatter for easier scrambling than in some other places we stopped. This was a fun and easy hike with the boys. There were also (pit, I believe) bathrooms by the parking area (where we ended up parking along the side of the road, like many other people. Although we crossed path with few people while hiking).
I believe this is the closest you can get to a lighthouse within the park. And someone lives there! There was a line to get into the ~20 parking spots but it moved pretty quickly (and the only place we saw a line for parking), we maybe waited 10 minutes for a spot to open up. There were some wooden stairs and then they just dropped you off on the most dangerous rock scrambling we had the entire trip. All the rocks seemed to be pointy side up with a lot of crevasses between them. It was also one of the busiest parts of the park we were in because everyone was in such a small area.
Turns out, you couldn't even get real close to the lighthouse and the rocks made me nervous (a few of us got scraped up here). BUT...it was gorgeous and we could still see part of a lighthouse. I wouldn't recommend if you have very little kids (Sam, age 4, needed quite a bit of help) or are uncomfortable climbing over rocks. We all had shoes on but there were many people in flip-flops and that seemed particularly dangerous.
That was all our second day in Acadia! The following day we were in Bar Harbor but we finished with Acadia on day 4!
This was the longest hike we did in Acadia and one we knew we'd have to be early for! Park literature said the parking lot can fill up by 9, we got there at 8:40 and got the last spot in the overflow lot, after circling the main lot three times! It was so busy. By the time we left there were cars parked along the road for what felt like almost the entire 2 miles of the hike. I'd HIGHLY recommend doing this one early, pre-9am, or later in the day, after 4?, would probably be ok too.
This path is 2 miles out and back, almost entirely all along the coast. We started at Sand Beach (flushing toilets!) and then walked. And walked. And walked. We walked past Thunder Hole (not thundering when we were there, I think when high tide is coming in is the best time for it but there was no way, with kids and parking, we could have worked out that timing right). The scenes all along the coast were just amazing.
We stopped many places to scramble over rocks. The trail was mostly flat until the end turn around at Otter Point but there was 2 way traffic, especially when we were headed back. VERY glad we started this so early!
This place with VERY LARGE pebbles was towards the end, not too far before Otter Point. By this time I realized we had done so much hiking and rock scrambling that I had a broken shoe (my much worn Converse aren't made for all that) so I didn't venture down there with Matt & the boys. These look like pebbles but they were all larger than my head, significantly so in some places (Luke just wanted to bring "1 or 2" home...we brought zero, for many reasons.)
All told, we spent somewhere around 3 hours doing the 4 mile round trip hike, with many side trips off to scramble over rocks. It was gorgeous and I'm SO GLAD we had perfectly clear skies for this. Would highly recommend. You can also turn around at any point!
This wasn't a hike but was one of the boys' favorite parts of the trip! It's the only sand beach in Acadia (the rest are rocky) and the signs said the water peaks around 55° in August. This was mid-June. The air was about 60°. Matt estimates the water was somewhere around 40°. You all, Luke swam for 45 minutes. We had taken wet suits for the boys expecting this and he LOVED IT. It was his absolute favorite part of the whole trip. Sam played a little bit in the Ocean but got cold (for obvious reasons) and much preferred a stream behind the beach that was much warmer. I am the only one who didn't take a swimsuit (not even to Maine at all) and caught up in my journal, tried to keep sand out of my broken shoe, and kept an eye on Luke in the ocean while Matt was with Sam at the stream. It was chilly but the boys loved it enough that it was worthwhile. And Luke got to swim in the Atlantic Ocean in Maine.
All told, we had our parking spot at Sand Beach for 5 hours and made the most of it (we had also eaten lunch out of the trunk between hiking and swimming). There were changing rooms, water bottle refill stations, and decent bathrooms here too.
At this point in the day, we checked out Jordan Pond again to see it not in the fog and then turned in the boys' junior ranger packets (entirely done in the previous 24 hours) to get their badges at the Hulls Cove Visitors Center. This is when we learned that Jordan Pond House also has a National Park cancellation stamp (I've had a book since 2004 from my Dad and we had bought them for the boys on this trip.) But we didn't get the Jordan Pond stamp! So if you go there, get the stamp.
We had time for ONE FINAL THING in Acadia and we finally made it back to one of the first, non-rainy things, we tried to do. It was time to end...with a Bubble.
South Bubble
This was the only hike we did that wasn't labeled in an Acadia trail book as kid friendly. BUT...I had read about a rock seemingly perched perilously on the edge, looking like it could be pushed over with the tiniest amount of energy. And once I shared about this with the boys, Luke was dead-set on trying. It was about 4pm and we were all up for one last adventure. So we decided to try the Bubble. There were around 20 parking spots in this lot and, shocking, TWO empty when we got there. We didn't even take the last one!
It says the hike is ½ mile to the top but it is the steepest and "hardest" hike we did in Acadia. Just bigger rocks to climb up and more exertion required. Luke (9) and Sam (4) still did it, Sam often needing a hand but scrambling over rocks all week gave them a lot of practice. It was a perfect hike to end on!
We found the top and Luke tried his best to push over the boulder...it didn't budge (which is good considering the road below). We are far from the first people to try. I am SUPER curious how it just seems to balance there! What is holding it??? (Somewhere I read that a glacier dropped it there around 10,000 years ago and it came from some miles north of here.)
This whole hike and spending some time at the top took about an hour. The views were wonderful. We could see with Jordan Pond or Eagle Lake from the top (I got turned around, I'm not sure), both of places we had spent time at earlier in the week. It was a really fun hike to end our time on.
And that was it! All the hikes and activities we did in Acadia. If I had to pick a favorite I'd probably say Cadillac Mountain but everything we did in the park was wonderful. I kept telling Matt, I don't think we had been on a trip before where literally everything was as good or BETTER than we expected and hoped it would be. Nothing was a letdown in terms of activities, just parking at times. It was one of the smoothest and best vacations we've taken. I'd highly recommend it all! (Except, go in the shoulder season, I've seen in Instagram in the last couple weeks, the park talking about how there is NO PARKING...so do your best to avoid that but still go!)
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