When it comes to beautiful places, I don’t mind repeat visits. This month, I was fortunate enough to return to Acadia National Park in Maine. In my first visit, I did some hiking but also explored more of Maine in the vicinity, such as the town of Belfast. This time, I was able to do more great hikes in Acadia than in the first trip as that was the focus of the trip.

What makes for a great hike

For me, there is no one ideal hike. In this trip over a half dozen or so hikes, what I loved the most was that most trails offered some level of uniqueness. Be it the spectacular views of the ocean and islands, or the challenge of rock-running, or the ravine option on a downhill, or the ladders & ropes on another, the variety that Acadia offers was quite surprising and welcome.

Also, what makes a hike great is reading about the options beforehand to help narrow things down. I use the AllTrails app (this is not a sponsored post!). I find its features super cool: visualizing the trail, elevation views, tracking moving vs total time, etc. It is also very easy to use.

So heading into a hike, I may not know what will be unique and surprising, but I feel it helps me pick hikes I will like, and how to do them. For example, do I want to do a loop clockwise or counter-clockwise.

Finally, a great hike also is made so by following your preference on going solo, hiking with a bud, or hiking a group. I prefer hiking with a friend as it allows for quality time and an alternative to endless selfies! And certainly, someone to goof off with along the way! Fun times.

In no particular order, here are some of the great hikes in Acadia that I enjoyed in this trip (in no particular order).

Witch Hole and Pond Carriage

At 7.8 miles or so but little elevation gain, this trail qualifies as moderate. This trail is near Hulls Cove by the Park Headquarters. It passes small ponds along the route and it is a smooth trail good for hikers, regular bikers, and strollers. The choice to do this trail on day 1 was that it was supposed to rain and I thought it would be better to avoid rocky trails. I certainly was not going to let rain keep me from hiking but also wanted to be sensible!

St. Sauveur and Acadia Mountains

In researching these two mountains, I learned there was an easy way to build a loop hike that hit both and covered 4.5 miles or so. Neither mountain gets beyond 700 ft in elevation but, together, they are considered a moderate hike as the terrain is not smooth.

For those who may not want to go up a mountain twice in one loop, the Man O War trail allows a way to return to the trailhead off route 102.

We felt the counterclockwise direction turned out to be better once we had finished the hike. St. Sauveur Mountain was good but the views from Acadia Mountain were better. In addition, the uphill and downhill on Acadia Mountain were a lot of fun, and a great way to finish the loop hike! A lot of stones/rocks to run up (or down) added a neat challenge to the hike.

Pemetic Mountain

This 5-mile hike starts at the restaurant on Jordan Pond in very flat terrain at the pond’s edge. A little more trafficked due to the popularity (and ease?) of the pond trail but, quickly, the trail to Pemetic veers off and then it was not as crowded (though we did run into people along the way).

A neat surprise on this one, on the downhill, was to go down the regular path OR to go down a ravine with the aid of two ladders. A no-brainer for this daring hiking duo: ravine!

A good bit of the downhill was rocky of the more painful kind: not the large rocks to jump your way through but the ones that, even if being careful, is very inviting to a twisted ankle.

The hike ends up skirting the Bubbles (North and South) and you could decide to go up one or both of them. We skirted them and ran into a beautiful forested area. This was a very cool hike.

Bernard Mountain

On the last day of the trip, we had to squeeze one final hike. We wanted to do some other things later in the day before heading to Bangor to be by the airport for the 6AM flight the next day. We had hiked in that part of Mount Desert Island earlier and wanted to drive around that part of the island so Bernard Mountain was the choice.

It was a beautiful and very quiet hike. We saw only one person as we started the climb. It was very green and not much of a view at the top but what made it a gem was all the vegetation. A rolling mist near the summit was a treat!

What to know about visiting Acadia National Park

Acadia is one of the top visited national parks in the United States and it earns that through the beauty of the scenery combined with the good food (lobster, anyone?!). One word of caution: at peak season, the place can be a madhouse of traffic and cars. I could see the buildup in early June but, for example, it was still easy to find parking along Ocean Path Trail (the one-way road along the coast). Two years ago, when I went at peak time, it was nearly impossible to find a parking spot along the road. So, if at all possible, avoid peak season to maximize the ease of enjoying the place.

Another key thing to do that I did on my first visit but not on this one is to go see the sunrise atop Cadillac Mountain. As the suggestion alludes to, it is an early start day… You can drive up to the summit (I think it is a 3-mi drive) and just sit up there on the rocks awaiting the earliest sunrise in the eastern seaboard. Be mindful though: you need to have pre-purchased a pass to get to this spot at sunrise. It is a HIGHLY popular thing to do and there is only so much parking up there. You must either buy it months in advance OR check at 10AM two days before the day you want to go. Thankfully, the pass is $6 so it will not break the bank. Now, of course, check the weather the night before lest you wake up to go and the sky is overcast!

I have been blessed to visit twice and hope I can visit again and enjoy Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park some more!