We’ve spent the last couple of days in Acadia National Park as we make our way up the North East coast of the US and back towards Eastern Canada. We took a fairly scenic drive along the coast to get here from Portland, via some nice fishing villages and with a nice stop by a lake for lunch.

Acadia National Park is spread out over quite a large area as you can see from the map above. We’re staying over on the western area (marked by the blue dot) but a lot of the park is on the eastern side, including the main town area of Bar Harbor. It’s only about 30 mins drive from where we’re staying to Bar Harbor so it’s easy to get around.

A misty and foggy day 1

Our first day here was very foggy and misty which was a bit annoying. We went and did some hiking anyway but we didn’t really get to enjoy much in the way of views. First stop was ‘Jordan’s Pond’ which is one of the most popular places to visit – we went back again on day 2 when it was sunny and clear so you can see the difference that made in the pics a bit later! I won’t bother with too many photos here as you can’t see much other than that it was an interesting walk with long wooden boardwalks and some sections where you have to scramble over the rocks

After a walk around the lake we did a steeper climb up to the ‘North Bubbles’ and ‘Pematic Mountain’ which involved some pretty steep steps, and some fun ravines you had to make your way down, featuring wooden ladders to climb back up at the end – that was good fun!

The views from the top were obscured unfortunately by the mist 🙁

In the afternoon we went to do another hike a bit nearer to home at Beech Mountain. Thankfully the weather was starting to improve so we had some slightly better views from the top. There was also an old fire tower at the top when you got there too.

Day 2 – a hotter and sunnier day with lots of hiking

On the second day we got up early to try and beat some of the crowds as we were going to one of the busier areas of the park. I’m glad we did as the car park was already full when we got there (we managed to get a space thankfully) and by lunch time it was rammed everywhere. We went to do one of the most unique hikes in the area which was called the Bee Hive, involving some steep climbs using metal rungs and ladders attached to the cliff face and some steep ledges and drop offs. It was pretty crazy in places!

With the sun out and the mist gone, we had some amazing views on the way up too.

From there we extended the hike to the nearby Bowl Lake, then because we hadn’t done enough climbing yet we climbed another steep ascent up Gorham Mountain. This was another very varied walk with lots of rock scrambling, ledges and some caves even along the way back.

After descending from the mountain the walk went back along the rocky coastline for some nice views of the sea and the (busy but nice) beach:

In the afternoon we drove up the highest mountain in the park which was Cadillac Mountain, which required a booking in advance so they can limit the volume of cars going up. There was a short walk around the summit and some amazing views out over the ocean, park and town

After that we headed back to Jordan Pond, the place we’d visited on the first day but that was far too misty to see anything. I’m glad we did as it was a lovely lake with a nice flat walk around it (thank god by this stage!)

We went to the Jordan Pond House as well which has a large restaurant right near the lake. We tried their famous “Popovers”, which is like an airy, batter type cake, a bit like an inflated scone served with butter and strawberry jam. Hard to explain but it was a nice snack after a lot of walking that day in the sun. A nice patio area to sit at as well.

We are moving on again today, back in to Canada so more updates soon

Si