The Beehive

It was a beautiful day along the coastline and we first drove the Park Loop Road to Sand Beach.  There were lots of people here, but after a quick pitstop, we headed across the road to the start of the Beehive trail.  It was an exhilarating hike, including some rock scrambling and we needed to take advantage of the rungs/ladders on the way up.  We hesitated in a couple places where we had to hug the side of the mountain as we skirted along the narrow trail.   Each time we stopped to catch our breath and looked back out over the water, the views with the early stages of Fall color were more and more fantastic.  Upon returning down, we connected back to the Ocean Trail and followed this back to Sand Beach, passing by the renowned Thunder Hole.  While it was pretty, we must’ve caught it at the wrong tide level and missed the majestic displays.  I think the total of these hikes was between 3-4 miles and the moderate/strenuous parts were awesome.  If you’re not up for scrambling or a little bit of treacherous footing in places, then you might want to avoid the Beehive.  If you’re up for the challenge, you won’t be disappointed.

 

The Iconic

Photo

If you’ve ever seen a writeup on Acadia, odds are you’ve seen the lighthouse photo.  Same here and we wanted to capture it at sunset.  So, as the afternoon sun was heading for the horizon, we jumped back in the car and began the 20+ mile drive past Southwest Harbor to the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse.  We were glad to have mosquito spray as the bugs were thick and we escaped with only a few irritating bites.  There were lots of people who had climbed out on the rocks for good views of the lighthouse with the sun setting in the background, so it was a bit competitive for the best photos.  Soon, it was nearly dark and we were famished.  We made the long trek back to Bar Harbor, checked into our hotel, and headed down Cottage Street, landing at the Finback Alehouse.  We had lobster rolls and a local beer.  We’re not discerning when it comes to lobster rolls, you could have smothered practically any concoction in butter and we would have devoured it.  And the craft beer after a long day of hiking was a deserved reward.  After dinner, we walked over to Ben & Bill’s Chocolate Emporium for ice cream. You can find the place as it’s watched over by a tall ice cream eating lobster outside.  Our ice cream was really good, but we weren’t so adventurous to try the less-appetizing lobster ice cream.  All in all, we had a wonderfully successful first day on our park journey and we set our alarms to get up an hour before sunrise.

 

Jordan Pond

and the Bubbles 

I know that sounds a lot like a crappy 80’s pop band, but it’s a good description of my favorite part of the park.  The Bubbles are a pair of tiny mountains that stand guard over Jordan Pond, one of the most popular sites in the park.  So, the next day after breakfast, we wanted to hike the Bubbles down to Jordan Pond.  Unfortunately, the parking lot near the Bubbles trailhead was full.  So we flipped our route and decided to start at Jordan Pond and hike up instead.  It started as an easy, peaceful trek along the lake with many wonderful views of the colorful leaves.  About half way around, we came to a junction with multiple choices.  We could continue along the shoreline or head up the mountain toward the Bubbles Parking Lot, or head directly to South Bubble.  We chose the last option, not knowing the consequences of picking this route.  This was another challenging hike with lots of scrambling up boulders and stepping up granite steps as we ascended toward our target.  About 90% of the way to the top, we encountered what we later named “the Eliminator.”  This was a section on the trail where the path abruptly came upon a 7-foot-tall granite wall with a small wedge gap where some younger part of the population might be able to shimmy into and climb up to the top of the wall.  As we considered our next steps, we saw some people turn around and saw one couple breeze on up and through.  This would have been an ideal place for some of those iron rungs or a ladder.  Not to be discouraged, we hiked part way back down the mountain to another turnoff where we rather easily made our way to the top of the South Bubble.  Hmmm, not the most direct journey, but at the end of the day, we’ll call it successful.  From the top, most signs take you to the famous Bubble Rock which looks precariously perched near the edge of the mountain.  The north view at this point overlooking Eagle Lake is great, but many people can easily miss the best part of this summit.  If you follow the narrow trail south, you will come to a spectacular overlook of Jordan Pond.  We shared the peak with a few other visitors, but it was isolated enough that we felt all alone in this setting.  Next, we headed back down to Jordan Pond, hoping to make it back in time for popovers.  The best way to describe this route down was a treasure hunt bouncing down a boulder mountain.  It wasn’t really a trail, but there were occasional markings that we eventually found and did make it back to the loop around Jordan Pond.  We did make it back to the Jordan Pond House before it closed and sat down as the late afternoon sun started casting long shadows across the water.  We had heard about their famous popovers, an airy egg batter roll that they have been baking since the 1890’s.  Well, they were wonderful, especially warm with jam.  After our meal, we grabbed a few more photos and hit the road south to Boston to visit the JFK Presidential Museum.

 

All in all, it is understandable why Acadia is so popular.  The coastline is beautiful, there are plenty of excellent hikes, and Bar Harbor is a fun tourist spot.  If you live on the East Coast, this is a must visit park.  If you live somewhere else and have the ability to make the trip, you’ll love it.  My only regret from Acadia is I wish we had taken an extra day to ride bikes on the Carriage Roads.  Maybe another day.