If you love lobster and blueberries, you’ll be in heaven in Bar Harbor, Maine! As for me? I’m officially going on a blueberry cleanse after spending three days in Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park π
As a first-time New Englander (yes, I made up my own word, there), I was so excited for this trip! My husband and I had 3 days in Bar Harbor. In this post I’m going to spill all the details on our favorite [and least favorite] hikes so you can make the most out of your trip!
Since we only had three days, we wanted to get in as many trails as possible. When we go to National parks, we like to “bundle” trails. Meaning we’ll try and knock out 2-3 at a time. Unless we have specific recommendations from people, we find all our hikes on All Trails.
Day 1
Hike Cadillac Mountain North Ridge and Gorge Path Loop
All Trails Rating: Hard
Length: 4.4 mile loop
*Dog-friendly
Let’s just say, prepare for your legs to be on fire. This trail was tough. Technically, we did the trail backward, going up Gorge Path and down Cadillac Mountain. Honestly, I would recommend everyone do it this way! We went a morning after it rained, so the rocks were a little slippery. Our dog was with us, so I felt more comfortable trekking up this trail vs down.
Gorge Path consists of 2.5 miles of scrambling over rocks. It was challenging but oh-so fun! The views at the top are worth it. Once you get to the Cadillac-Dorr Connector, you have the option to go to summit Dorr Mountain or Cadillac Mountain. Obviously, we did Cadillac Mountain.
Unfortunately, it was super foggy at the top, but that’s the risk you run with Maine weather. The views were still beautiful and there was plenty of space to spread out from other people.
We even brought our dog with us and he loved it!
With breaks, the hike took us about 2.5 hrs and was a great start to the morning.
After that, we drove back to our Airbnb, dropped off our dog, and then decided to do a less strenuous hike on Great Head Trail (Full Loop).
Great Head Trail (Full Loop)
All Trails Rating: Moderate
Length: 1.8 miles
*Dog-friendly
Jumping into it – this was one of my favorite trails!! We didn’t realize it when we started, but this loop gives you access to Sand Beach, which I definitely recommend visiting.
Dogs are welcome on this trail, however, there are a few large boulders that may be difficult for them to jump over. Overall, I thought this trail was pretty easy. The views of the coast were unmatched. I could have sat and watched the waves crashing against the rocks all day. If I were to recommend any trail at Acadia, it would be this one.
Legs and feet were pretty sore at this point so we headed into Bar Harbor for dinner. Settling on Atlantic Brewing Company, we shoved our faces with a meat and cheese board, a beer flight, and I got a beet salad lol. IMO food tastes better after a long ass day on the trails – right?!
Day 2
I may get some hate for this…
The first hike of the day was the infamous Jordan Pond Path. I’ve got to be honest guys….I didn’t love this trail and thought it was super overrated.
Jordan Pond Path
All Trails Rating: Easy
Length: 3 miles
*Dog-friendly
BUt giVe mE a cHanCe to eXpLaIn?!?!?
From my research [mainly TikTok hehe], Jordan Pond Path is one of the most popular trails in the park. It’s flat and easy, which makes it a big hit with families and maybe people who aren’t as physically fit or active. That being said, we expected it to be busy (and it was). Luckily, we got there around 8 am and it wasn’t horrible.
My beef starts here…
For the first mile of this trail, you’re walking on a wooden balance beam because they’re trying to preserve the plants and foliage around the pond. I totally respect that!! But trying to stay on this thin piece of wood AND keep your 2-year-old, high-energy dog on it was a weeeeee bit challenging.
The beef continues…the trail is narrow all the way around. This made it really difficult to pass people and we would have to squish together and attempt to put our dog behind us to move past people coming in the opposite direction. It was honestly just a pain in the ass.
Was the trail pretty? Yes. Would the experience have been better without our dog? Likely. But I didn’t think this trail was anything spectacular.
Moving on to the fun stuff!
Hike #2 of the day [or should I say hikes] was a few rolled into one.
Beehive, Gorham, and Ocean Path Loop
*FYI: You can do all of these trails individually, but we wanted to knock out as many as we could!
All Trails Rating: Hard
Length: 3.5 mile loop
Beehive trail is also one of the most popular hikes in the park, namely because it consists of scaling ladders and scrambling over rocks, making it more technical. Can’t bring your pups on this one, guys!
It’s recommended to this trail counterclockwise so that you are going up Beehive trail and not down.
Beehive was super fun and you can’t beat those views! It was challenging but nothing too intense IMO. I do recommend hiking boots or shoes with good grip for this one.
The hiking boots I have are here.
Gorham Mountain
All Trails Rating: Moderate
Length: 1.6 miles out-and-back
*Dog-friendly when completed on it’s own
This one was a bit rocky, but nothing too challenging.
Ocean Path Trail
All Trails Rating: Easy
Length: 4.5 miles out-and-back
*Dog-friendly when completed on it’s own
This path is mostly flat and offers tons of scenic views. There are also access points to Thunder Hole and Otter Cliff.
Day 3
*cries a little*
Day three of our trip was one for the books. Fun fact: our Airbnb host is a commercial lobster fisherman, and at the last minute, asked if we wanted to take a tour of his lobster boat. Our response? Um YES PLEASE. How could we not?!
However, we wanted to do one last big hike before parting ways with Maine. And we chose *drum roll pleaseeeee*
Six Summits
David really wanted to do this one. Since we were meeting for the lobster tour at 11 am, we knew we would have to book it on this trail because it was SIX miles.
All Trails Rating: Hard
Length: 5.9 mile loop
*Dog-friendlyΒ
This trail is not for the faint of heart. It. is. challenging. But, you’ll get to summit six peaks within Acadia – Bald Peak, Parkman Mountain, Gilmore Peak, Sargent Mountain, Penobscot Mountain, and Cedar Swap Mountain.Β
You can do this trail two ways…and TBH, I think we chose the harder route LOL Technically we did the trail “backwards”, and ended up at Cedar Swap Mountain first, Penobscot Mountain second, and so on.
*Things to note on this trail: it is VERY rocky and in between each summit, you’ll be maneuvering over a forest of roots. By the end of this hike, I wanted to rip all the roots out of the ground just for a nice, flat surface π But I digress…
With breaks, we clocked 6.3 miles in a little over 4 hours. This trek definitely tested my patience, but the views at the top of the summits made it all worth it and it felt like a huge accomplishment to finish!
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And to end our Maine extravaganza, we went lobster [?fishing?]! It was the ultimate Maine experience, in my opinion.
Our Airbnb host, Dallas, is a commercial lobsterman and he took David and me out on his boat for a tour of Northeast Harbour, where he has his lobster traps.
We pulled up some lobsters and Dallas gave us a lesson on how they trap the lobsters, as well as the criteria for which lobsters they keep vs throw back.
Fun fact: if they find a female lobster with eggs, they throw them back and clip a little bit of their tale to let other fishermen know this gal has a “free pass” for life since she has essentially helped keep the population going.
He offers group tours and *bonus* – you can bring your dog (if they’re well-behaved on a boat.)
It was a really unique experience and I highly recommend adding this to your itinerary!
Book your lobster fishing tour here.
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