Acadia National Park

This island is incredibly beautiful from the rocky coasts to the highest peaks. It’s the perfect place for nature lovers and people who enjoy small, artsy towns.

I go to Maine every summer but I’ve never been to Acadia National Park. I’ve heard it’s really beautiful there and this might be the summer I go.

New England cruise
August 2007

I’ve lived in Maine my whole life and have traveled a fair amount, Acadia National Park is and always will be one of my top 5 favorite places to be in the entire world.

Camp in Acadia or stay at one of hundreds of hotels in the surrounding towns. If you want Blackwoods Campground reservations in the summer, you need to reserve months in advance (we tried last year in May for August and were too late). Cleanest bathrooms you ever did see. There is lots of fun hiking – I recommend the Beech Cliffs hike over Echo Lake – less than a kilometer, but much of it vertical, some on ladders, so it’s strenuous and fun. The carriage roads are flat enough to push a stroller and have lots of rock scrambles for kids and kids-at-heart to climb on. There are wild blueberries (in August) to pick in the field below Jordan Pond House. Sunrise on Cadillac Mountain is the first it can be seen in the U.S. Bar Island is only an island at high tide, so you can walk over at low tide, picnic and explore and stare out over the crags and waves, and then return about 12 hours later on foot. The Island Explorer shuttle has bike racks and spares you parking hassles all over the park (there are TONS of people at this park) but watch out for the last connection of the night lest you be stranded in a park with no cell phone reception and pay phones that don’t accept calling card 800 numbers. Lots of places to buy local produce (think blueberries) and ice cream or go whale watching or just be a tourist in the shops of Bar Harbor. The Whale Museum was really cool and only $2 for adults (8/2007). The only drawback is the crowds – no moose or bears on the island because they’ve decided it’s just too thick with people. Oh, and we got a nice long audience with a barred owl in the trail at Sieur de Monts Spring.