10 Things to Do in Acadia National Park!

what's up guys it's doof here with travel season today i'm going to show you 10 great things you can do in acadia national park in maine we visited this national park in september of 2020 right before the leaves started to really change colors they just started to change colors a little bit it wasn't too crowded but also it could have been because of covid times we had a wonderful experience lots of amazing things to see there are obviously much more than 10 things to see but these are just our top 10 based on our experience of spending a full week in acadia national park these top 10 things are not in any particular order all 10 of these things were great and each thing is going to appeal to a different person in a different way so just enjoy these top 10 and let's dive into it now so acadia national park is located in maine here's a big map of the u.s just to show you where that park is and then looking at the national park map for acadia you can see that the park is kind of spread out it's not just like one blob and everything is in that one section you can kind of travel around and see a bunch of different things based on what part of the park you go to and we decided to spend most of our time on mount desert island because we like to do a lot of hiking and uh like that kind of outdoor adventure type stuff number 10 on our countdown is sand beach this is located more on the eastern side of mount desert island and this is actually one of the few beaches in the area that has sand on the beach and you may ask why does this beach have sand and none of the other beaches have sand and all the other beaches are rocky and that's because if you look at that map again you can see that this sand beach is located in a cove where the beach is protected from big rough waves and the shallow slope of the sand uh bottom going down into the ocean there just allows for fine sediment to deposit there is no lifeguard on duty at this beach however swimming is allowed i i just think you'd be very cold it says on the national park service website that the warmest temperature that the water reaches is 60 degrees fahrenheit in august so that's still pretty cold we did see one guy in there surfing but he was wearing a wetsuit another cool thing about this beach is whenever the tide goes down it exposes these tide pools along the sides of the beach kind of going out into the water there so you can walk around on the tide pools just be careful because the rocks can get slippery there with some of the algae on them but you can find some pretty cool stuff i found like a claw of a crab that a bird had eaten the rest of and i was just teasing my husband with that one sand beach has one of the largest parking lot areas in acadia national park because you can access so many different trails and features of the park from this area so make sure you get there before 9am try to get there like around 7am if you can but that parking lot does fill up very quickly number nine on our list is the bass harbor lighthouse located on the south end of mount desert island this is one of the few lighthouses in maine that's actually accessible by a vehicle you can drive right down to the lighthouse there's a parking lot with not very many spaces so you might have to wait for someone to leave for you to get your spot but you can park right there and walk right up to the lighthouse and learn about its history you can also walk this little path that can take you onto the rocky slopes where i have this gorgeous view of the lighthouse the rocks and the ocean i wanted to mention that you can't physically go inside this lighthouse but even without going in there it's pretty awesome just to see in person it's beautiful and this is one of the top five most visited spots in the national park according to the national park service next up on our list is jordan pond and jordan pond is something that you can enjoy no matter what type of person you are as long as you like nature so if you want to get out on the water do some kayaking you can do that if you like to hike around there are many hikes that go like around the pond or up on those little mountains right behind the pond or if you just want to sit relax and eat then you could do that there too the jordan pond house is known for its popovers and tea we saw that the line to get that was over an hour wait time so we skipped out on the popovers but i'm sure they're great we did enjoy a nice hike around the whole lake there we just did the loop around the lake and this is just such a well-maintained well-constructed trail i think because it's such a popular destination in the park that they put a little extra effort into this area to hike just around jordan pond is 3.4 miles for the full loop and there's only 95 feet elevation change for this whole hike it's relatively flat as you saw there are sections that are boardwalk that are not wheelchair accessible but some sections of this path are so just do a little more research before you go if that's something that you need to take into consideration jordan pond is a great area for viewing wildlife we saw evidence of beavers we saw a damned section and some tree trunks that had beaver teeth marks in them we also saw loons out on the water we could hear them first and then we saw them with our binoculars so that was really cool and lots of other birds and animals call that area home number seven let's go for the adventurous hike of the precipice trail this trail is not for people that are afraid of heights or people that lack upper body strength this trail has some ladders that you physically need to like climb up in the rock ledges to get to the next section there's also a bouldering section where you have to use your upper body to kind of make your way up the mountain a little bit so keep that in mind if you want to do this hike to access this trailhead you're going to look on the eastern side of mount desert island along park loop road north of sand beach so if you're heading south on park loop road and you've made it to sand beach you went too far it's just a little parking lot off to the right of the road and then the trail starts going into the forest you'll then come across a bouldering section where you have to scramble on the rocks to get up to the actual precipice part of the trail the next section of this trail is more of the precipice part where you're just kind of hiking along the edge of these rock paths in the massive outcrop so you're just kind of clinging to the rock wall here and you have like a decent drop on the other side of you so this is where being afraid of heights kind of might be a little scary but you know if you're cool with that then it's pretty awesome it gets a little windy up here as well too so just make sure you're holding on to those rails we brought gloves just to also prevent germ spreading as well and to get a little better grip on some of those ladders and wrongs the views are incredible on this hike once you keep going through this ladder section you eventually get to the very top where your views are even better and you just start making your way back down the mountain on it we make a loop here so you could go back down the way you came but that's not recommended it's recommended to take more of a loop path that will take you down a less steep route down the mountain where you'll come back to park loop road and just walk along the road back to your car next up on our list is ocean path and this includes a lot of different things uh the biggest thing here is probably going to be thunder hole that's one of the most visited spots in the park but to start here you want to park at the sand beach parking lot that i mentioned before that parking lot fills up quickly so try to get there early then you start walking from sand beach heading south and the ocean path hike basically is just a sidewalk along park loop road between the road and the ocean and from there as you're hiking along here you get all these magnificent viewpoints of the ocean with these rocks and the crashing waves and thunderhole which is another really unique thing to see if you hike this trail all the way down to otter point and back it's 4.5 miles total for our hike we decided to start at sand beach go north to do the beehive trail and then head south on that trail you can see that's west of thunderhole that's the gorham mountain trail and that meets back up with ocean path from there at that intersection we went north and just walk the ocean path north passing thunderhole on the way back to sand beach thunderhole got its name from the thunderous sound that the water makes as it hits this little underwater cave and crashes back out so this air gets trapped inside this little cave that's like partially underwater there and then that entrapment of air with the water crashing up creates this thunder sound which is really neat and the best time to see that is two hours before high tide because that's when the water level is at the best place to make that thunder sound wow next up on our list is the lovely little village of bar harbor bar harbor is located on the east northeast section of mount desert island and this is a great place to stop to grab a bite to eat we grab breakfast here we grab lunch here we grab dinner here on different days so we enjoy just walking around there are public restrooms outside uh so if you just want to stop there after your hikes just to use the restroom on your way back to your campground you can do that as well and there are lots of nice little shops with different arts souvenir type things clothing stores so it is fun just to walk around and kind of see the touristy side of things even if you're not huge into that touristy feel it's still nice just to walk around because it is a very clean little town next up on our list is the beehive trail similar to the precipice trail but a little shorter of a hike this beehive trail can be accessed from the parking lot right by sand beach so another spot you can access from that massive parking lot just by sand beach now if you do the beehive loop trail where you just start at that parking lot do the loop go up to the bowl area and then come back down and around then that is only a 1.4 mile round trip hike so it's not quite as long but the way that we did it is we took the route up hiked to the bowl and then we made our way back down on the gorham mountain trail which added a little bit of time and more mileage to the hike from the gorham mountain trail we took that down to the intersection with the ocean path trail and hiked north past thunderhole back to sand beach so this trail is often compared to the precipice trail uh the beehive trail is just a little bit shorter it doesn't have that scrambling section where you have to scramble over boulders in the beginning it's more of just a wooded hike at first and then you get to a narrow section with some rocks where you still require upper body strength to climb up the mountain there are ladders again and in my opinion the beehive trail was a little scarier than the precipice trail and i think it's because it was windier when we did the beehive trail so the wind is a factor kind of blowing at you as you're on the side of this rock ledge climbing up the mountain and the ledges seemed a little more narrow on the beehive trail so you'll hear different things from different people as we were hiking some people were telling us the precipice trail was way scarier but i personally thought the beehive trail was scarier people often compare this to angel's landing in zion national park which i get because of the heights thing with the sheer drop on the side and the narrow ledge but the drop here is less than a thousand feet in zion it's much longer of a fall next up on our list is park loop road and this is just a lovely drive throughout the park this park loop road takes you from bar harbor down past sand beach along the ocean path down to otter point goes in this little inlet and then it comes back down then it takes you back around into more of the glacial feature mountainous type rocks in the main section of mount desert island and takes you past some of these little glacial lakes that were created there and just continues the loop around and then you can head back north out through the bar harbor area this is a great way to see the park very quickly if you have a half day or you you know you're not spending the night and you just want to see as much of mount desert island as you can i recommend just taking this park loop road pulling off at some of the spots on the side of the road seeing those viewpoints taking a couple mini little hikes from these parking lots just to see a little more of the park this is a really great way to see the park especially if you're not a big hiker and you don't want to hike to the top of these peaks you would like to take the road it's definitely the easiest way to access a lot of the park number two on this list is the bar island path which i was very pleasantly surprised with so in the town of bar harbor there's a section of the national park land that is the bar island path and every day at low tide you have access to bar island because the water level drops enough that creates this land bridge where you can just hike right across over to bar island at high tide this is completely covered up with water and you can't access that island at all so if you are doing this hike make sure you are leaving about an hour before low tide so you have a little bit of time on bar island to make your way back before high tide comes up as you are walking on this land bridge over to bar island you can check out all the little sea life there are lots of barnacles and other little tide pool animals hanging out in the section as the water level drops you can see some of them in there so that's fun to look at we also saw some birds flying over the island i think i saw an eagle and then once you make it to the island it's just a straight path i think it's just one mile on the island that just takes you straight out on one hike out to a viewpoint of bar harbor from bar island and then after that point there's just a turn around where you just head back the way you came and then cross over the bridge and head back into the town of bar harbor all right guys this brings us to our last point on my list of 10 great things to do in acadia national park and that is cadillac mountain to be specific go see the sunrise from cadillac mountain this is one of the most popular things that people want to do when they come to acadia national park and for good reason this is the highest elevation point on the eastern seaboard of the united states with the summit being 15 30 feet above sea level this is also one of the first places that you can actually see the sunrise from the united states because of this this is one of the most popular points in the park and parking is really crowded you need to get there an hour before sunrise to get a parking spot and find a spot to sit down grab some hot cocoa a tea or a coffee because it's gonna be chilly and windy bring a blanket as well and just sit there and wait for the sun to rise and then enjoy the sunrise with everybody else that has come out to see it this year the park service was planning on implementing a reservation system for parking so before you go on your trip make sure you check the national park service website which i have linked below this video so that you can see if you need to make a reservation for this parking lot before you go there were a few things that didn't make this list because we didn't get the chance to do this on our trip but i think you guys might be interested in those two so one is to see the puffins you can see the puffin colonies on some remote islands that are only accessible by boat and they breed there from april to august so you can only see those certain times of the year another thing is the shudik peninsula this is part of the national park boundary on the actual mainland of maine there it's that peninsula that is just like east ish from mount desert island and on the shooting peninsula you can do more hiking you can ride your bike around the loop road there and there's another learning center that you can visit i also heard good things about the beach mountain trail i didn't have time to do that one but here's some info on that a lot of the hiking trails in acadia national park are dog friendly so if you have a dog with you just look on the website before you go to see which trails you can bring your dog with you and finally we did not make it to the halls cove visitor center but if you are someone that would like to learn more about the park or maybe talk to a ranger then the hullsco visitor center is probably a great place for you to go visit all right guys that wraps up my 10 things to do in acadia national park with a couple added on extras that i didn't get to do but i think you guys might enjoy so i hope you enjoyed this video and you found it helpful for planning out your trip to acadia national park if you already visited acadia national park and you have something that's not on this list that you want everyone to know about then just leave a comment below this video so we can all help each other out and tell each other about things going on in the park and other fun stuff to do and if you guys haven't already subscribed make sure you hit the subscribe button we post videos about national park adventures and other travel adventures with lots of outdoor hiking type stuff so i think you'll find this channel helpful if you are into that type of thing so thanks for joining us today and have a great day have fun at acadia national park bye-bye

Channel: Travel SzN

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Keywords: travel szn, travel vlog, national park vlog, nature vlog, hiking videos, nature videos

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Length: 19min 24sec (1164 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 23 2020