Established originally as Sieur de Monts National Monument in 1916, Acadia National Park encompasses more than 48,000 acres on Mount Desert Island, the Schoodic Peninsula, Isle Au Haut, and many smaller coastal islands. The major portion of the park (30,500 acres) is located on Mount Desert Island with 10,156 acres within Bar Harbour’s boundary lines.
Acadia is famous for it’s Autumn foliage so we thought, what better time to go for a hike…
The park offers 120 miles of hiking trails, many of which reach granite peaks and 45 miles of gravel carriage roads enhanced by 16 stone bridges. The park receives approximately 2.5 million visits per year with 75 percent of the visitation occurring between June and September so we decided to go in October. It was still quite busy but we did enjoy our three day stay.
Entering the Park
Make sure you check in at the Hulls Cove Visitor Centre, pick up a Parks Pass and grab a map. The staff are very helpful and explained the shuttle system to us in detail. I was going to drive around the island from hike to hike, but after their explanation and seeing how the shuttle system operated, we chose to take the shuttle on day two of our hikes and are happy we did. It is an easy hop-off and hop-on system and brings you back to the Visitor Centre, where we left our car in the morning.
While in the park, we stayed at the Wonder View Inn, which is a fifteen minute walk to downtown Bar Harbour and a five minute drive to the Visitors Centre, so quite convenient.
We hiked The Jesup Path, Ocean Path, which includes Sand Beach, Thunder Hole and Otter Cliffs, then we hiked Jordan Pond Loop, South Bubble and parts of North Bubble Mountain and headed back to Jordan Pond Loop via the Bubbles Divide Trail.
Day 1 – The Jesup Path
Right after we checked in to the park, we beelined for The Jesup’s Path as the sun came out and we still had a couple of hours of daylight before our check in time.
Jesup Path is a 1 mile straightway through the woods and meadows of Acadia National Park that ends at the Tarn, a roadside pond. Much of its length follows a boardwalk through the marshy forest near the Acadia Nature Centre, with various lookout points encouraging visitors to use senses beyond sight to experience nature. It can be accessed from the Park Loop Road, the Acadia Nature Centre and from a variety of connector trails.
I’ve prepared a separate post on The Jesup Path with more detail here >
Day 2 – Ocean Path
On Day 2, we decided to hike the Ocean Path. This is a flat, easy walk along the most scenic coastline of Acadia National Park, with several nice viewpoints along the way. The full ocean trail goes from Sand Beach, which was completely fogged in the morning we got there, to Otter Point, and is about 2.2 miles long, or 4.5 miles roundtrip if you do the full path and back. It’s a flat path in good condition all the way, so anyone can do it and you can make this hike as short or long as you want, or just do a few of the best sections and skip the rest. It also passes Monument Cove, Boulder Beach and Otter Cliff along the way.
One of the best spots to see along the trail is definitely Thunder Hole, which is located at the halfway point, just 0.7 miles from Sand Beach. This is a crevice in the rocks where the waves blast and make a ‘boom’ sound, but expect a crowd. Timing is everything, so it’s best to come here around high tide.
We spent a little over 2 hours on the trail, choosing to only go in one direction, which included many stops along the way to see the many scenic lookouts and walk along the granite rocks which make up the shoreline here. It’s a simple walk and mostly on a well maintained path so anyone could do this hike. I enjoyed the added mysticism the fog added to our day but also would have enjoyed seeing the coast in the sunlight.
Distance: 2.2 miles – 2 hours
Difficulty: Easy
Jordan Pond Loop
Then we hopped on the shuttle to Jordan Pond.
This is a busy stop as there is a restaurant, gift shop and a shuttle terminal. We stopped to grab a coffee and eat a power bar before heading off to hike the loop. This is a flat, easy hike that loops around Jordan Pond, one of the most iconic sights in Acadia. Jordan Pond is known for being the clearest and also the deepest lake in Acadia National Park. They say it’s normally possible to see 45 feet below the surface. It was a little cloudy the day we hiked here, so the water seemed opaque.
You can circle the pond in about 1.5 to 2 hours, although there are a few spots where the path is muddy or narrow. We probably got to the park a week or two too early as the colours were just starting to change so if you plan a visit, my thoughts are the third week of October would be a better choice to visit.
On the loop back, the trail got pretty rocky and we were climbing over boulders for a 15 minute section then the boardwalk started. At first, we loved the boardwalk but it is quite narrow and every 100 feet or so, they have little platforms connected to the walk to allow people to pass by. I cannot imagine how busy this trail must be at high season because as it was, in October, there were a lot of people on that boardwalk and we had to step aside at almost every platform to let people by.
Distance: 3 miles (5 km). 1 – 1.5 hours
Difficulty: Easy
The South and North Bubble Trail & Bubbles Divide Trail
Halfway around the Jordan Loop, you can hike up the South Bubble Trail (which is 1.5 miles) for a panoramic view of Jordan Pond, which we did.
So you may be asking, ‘What are the Bubbles?’ The Bubbles are the two mountains that sit at the north end of Jordan Pond. Catching the view across the pond from them (near Jordan Pond House) is one of the classic shots of Acadia National Park. You can see them in my foggy photo above of Jordan Pond… sort of. They are shrouded in fog.
Instead of just having them as a backdrop to your photo, you can hike to the summit of each. Which we kind of did…
There are two trail options. One is quite difficult and one is quite easy – we chose easy and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Once at the top of the trail, there is an option to continue up the North Bubble Mountain, which is considerably higher and we hiked for about 15 minutes to find a nice vantage point before heading back down to find the Bubbles Divide, which is advertised as the easier route back down to the Jordan Pond Loop but it was far from easy. We climbed over large rocks for close to 45 minutes before finally finding the trail back to Jordan Pond House. We also met people who took the hard route and they said the route we took was far easier so if you are not fairly fit, I don’t recommend hiking this trail. Go back to the South Loop connector trail.
The entire trail system outlined above took us about 3 hours to complete.
Then we jumped on the shuttle and made our way back to Wonder View Inn.
Day 3 – Bar Harbor, Maine and a tour of Mount Desert Island
We were lucky enough to stay within a fifteen minute walk of Bar Harbor. Parking is atrocious in the town as it is far too busy for the amount of tourism the town receives to accommodate visitor parking. Don’t even try if you don’t have to.
That said, the town has many very good restaurants and several funky shops scattered between way too many t-shirt shops.
There is also the option of walking out onto the ocean floor when low tide goes out. For 1.5 hours before and after low tide, a gravel bar is exposed connecting the town of Bar Harbor and Bar Island. The tourism write-ups claim that the exposed bar provides opportunities for checking out small tidal pools, but I didn’t see any and I’m pretty good at finding that sort of stuff. Once on the island, the Bar Island Trail gradually ascends through the forest on an old road to various open sections with views of Bar Harbor and Frenchman Bay. It was kind of cool to watch the harbour open up and then walk across, but again, there were lots of people with the same idea. It’s a busy place, even in off season.
We also watched the lobster fishermen pulling in their daily catch, which always makes me sad. We spoke with them for a few minutes and they said their catches kept getting smaller and smaller. They had one old lobster they estimated to be about 15 years old and he was covered in barnacles and I couldn’t help but feel sad for the lobster, who had avoided lobster traps for that long only to make a mistake and be the next lobster on someones plate. The fishermen told us that lobster would be worth $45.00.
When we lived in Belize, we caught lobster for dinner but we caught them by free-diving down to catch them, not in traps and now, as I am increasingly developing my vegetarian diet, I don’t ever intend to eat another lobster. I’d rather know they are down there snacking on their diet of clams, crabs, snails, mussels, sea urchins and small fish.
The Livingstone House at Wonder View Inn
The Wonder View Inn. We stayed at The Livingstone House, which we were told is not very popular with guests because it doesn’t have a balcony.
Well, we loved it. The Livingston House is located at the bottom level of the property and offers rooms with one huge king bed. The rooms are right next to a nicely manicured lawn with a gazebo and tire swing and more importantly, to us, was located at the very bottom of the property, which is enormous and we didn’t have to hike up the property after dinner every night.
Aloha Poke House
Food.
Aloha Poke House. When it comes to Poke Bowls in Bar Harbor , Aloha Poke Bowl stands out as the ultimate choice. Their mission, which I love, is to deliver a consistent and delightful selection of fresh ingredients. Their build-your-own-bowl concept is designed to ensure a mouthwatering fusion of flavours, regardless of the specific items you select. I was really happy with our bowls. I had The Vegetarian Bowl, which included Inari Tofu, Choice of Brown or White Rice, Avocado, Cucumbers, Carrots, Edamame, Red Ginger, Sweet Corn, Red Radish, Green Onions, Seaweed Salad, Pineapples, House Poke, Sweet Teriyaki, Fried Garlic, Fried Onions, Sesame Seeds. Yim had The Ono Poke, which featured Tuna (Sushi Grade Raw), Scallops, Rice, Noodles, Cucumber, Carrots, Sweet Corn, Pineapple, Green Onions, Sweet Teriyaki, Sesame Dressing and Fried Garlic.
The Lompoc Cafe. We also ate here one night and really enjoyed ourselves. Their write up about themselves is; “Longstanding unpretentious backstreet hangout with a leafy patio & bocce serving up an inventive bar menu.” Between us we shared the Peanut Snack – Tofu triangles, assorted veggies and pickles with Lompoc peanut sauce. The Sprouts! – Crispy fried brussles sprouts served with Daniel’s sweet and sour sauce. The Root Vegetable Salad – Parsnip puree, a medley of roasted root veggies, tossed in shallot vin and sprinkled with crispy garlic and as our main dish, a Tofu Banh Mi – Marinated tofu, homemade pickled cucumbers, pickled peppers and onions, marinated carrots, aioli, harissa and cilantro. Yum!
I would like to have spent more time hiking different trails but considering the amount of time we had, we enjoyed our introduction to the park. I am glad we visited in October. I cannot imagine how busy this place must be in high season, given the amount of people that were on the trails. In fact, at one stop, one of the locals told us not to visit in high season, that it was just nuts there and far too busy. It’s a small place and as it was, the visitors parking lot was chock full of cars.
Overall, I found Bar Harbor too touristy. I cannot imagine what it must be like there in high season. When we went for an island tour, we enjoyed Northeast Harbor better and found several cool shops there.
Overall, we both enjoyed our time in Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor.
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