My fiance and I spent a week at/around Acadia National Park, and it was busy, great, and left us wanting more. Acadia is one of the smallest National Parks, yet, one of the oldests (second one to become a National Park after Yellowstone). The park is “small” but there is so much to do in it and around the area that if we ever come back for another week, it would be packed of activities we didn’t get to do the first time around!
But first, food…
Being in Maine, there was a lot of lobster and blueberries, which we had plenty off! Here were a few of the dishes we had during our stay. Amongst our favorites were…Zeppa’s Pizza, which we had when we landed and once more when we were headed towards the airport. Another favorite was Cafe This Way in Bar Harbor and Limon Grille. Great food overall, but the pancakes were our favorite! The popovers at Jordan Pond House were also great!
Sunday – Arriving in Maine
We flew into BGR (Bangor) mostly because of pricing, picked up a car at Alamo, and drove to where we would be spending the next week, Gouldsboro, Maine, in a little secluded place called Bluff House Inn.
Acadia National Park is huge. So much so that it sort of splits into a few different pieces of lands…one of them, was ~20 minute drive from where we were staying, which not a lot of people seem to visit since it is pretty secluded from the more popular parts of acadia (over an hour away).
The Inn was great. Secluded, scenic, clean, and it had a hot tub. I’ll be honest though, the coffee and “breakfast” was a little lacking, but not enough that I wouldn’t stay here again of course. Once we settled in, we decided to do a couple of easy loops that were around the area. It was also mostly always clear and dark enough to see some great stars in the sky!
Although super short, there were a couple of nice loops in Taft Point Preserve, within Acadia National Park that were very scenic. They really encompassed that Maine vibe.
Monday – Heavy Hiking Day
On Monday, we went in hard and hiked some of the go-tos trails in the main part of Acadia National Park. We did the Gorham Mountain Trail, Beehive Trail, Bubble Rock, a bit of the nice Ocean Path Trail, and explored Thunder Hole.
Towards the end of the day, we ended up coming back to Thunder Hole to see the high tide.
Bubble Rock was a last second additional after driving around the park, but we are glad we did it! Got a great view of Eagle Lake and eventually made our way to Jordan Pond to enjoy some popovers!
Tuesday – Nature Cruise
On Tuesday, we went to a couple of visitor centers and did a 2 hour Nature Cruise which was great! Got to see some great cottages along the park shore, a bit of history, and of course, some nature and wildlife!
Other than this, we pretty much walked around Bar Harbor all day and exploring some of the shops in the area!
Wednesday – More Hiking & Mini Golf
On Wednesday, we pretty much drove around the park (the main park loop), and stopped for scenic spots (like Otter Cliff), more visitor/nature centers, and a cool “secret” hike the park quietly took off its attraction list (though still fine to hike) because of the dangerous rocks and people not wearing the correct shoes, Anemone Cave.
Strava for the secret hike (only part of it, because we sort of accidentally ran up against it…we thought it was just a scenic spot until we realized there was a little trail).
We ended the day with some pretty cool mini golf at Pirate’s Cove Adventure Golf and some dinner at Bar Harbor!
Thursday – Biking through Acadia
The coolest thing we did this day was bike through Acadia with ebikes from Acedia Ebike Adventure. We start right in the park and then are pretty much on our own for the next 6 hours to ride within the Carriage Roads within Acadia.
Along the way, we also stopped once more at Jordan Pond House for some lunch and some more popovers!
Strava ride:
After, we had a little time to checkout some local disc golf here.
We ended the day by hanging out in Cadillac Mountain (reseveration ahead of time required) and waiting for the sun to set on us. Beautiful view indeed.
After this, we made a quick stop at Sand Beach to feel the sand and hear the waves crash on the shore.
Friday – Final Morning at Acadia
The final thing we did was checkout the part of Acadia closer to where we were staying in Gouldsboro, which included a couple of information/visitor centers and the Sundew Trail, which ended up being a beautiful trail.
Strava:
After this, we went to Zeppa’s for some pizza, walked around the local Audobon by the airport, and headed home.
Youtube
Checkout a quick video of our adventures!