Acadia National Park encompasses nearly 50,000 acres along the Atlantic Coastline of Maine — including Mount Desert Island, Schoodic Peninsula, Isle au Haut, and other outer islands. 60 miles of coastline, 33 miles of scenic motor roads, 45 miles of carriage roads, and more than 150 miles of hiking trails offer numerous ways to explore the park. Acadia National Park is mostly located on Mount Desert Island, the largest island off the coast of Maine. The park stretches across about half of the island, roughly divided by Somes Sound to create east and west sides.
We visited Acadia National Park towards the end of August 2025 while staying at the Thousand Trails Patten Pond Camping Resort about 45-minutes away in Ellsworth, Maine. We were in the area for about 10-days and visited Acadia on three separate occasions to see some different areas of the park.
On our first visit we went to the east side of Mount Desert Island, which is the most visited area of Acadia. We drove the 27-mile Park Loop Road that offered outstanding views and access to popular spots. Constructed between 1921 and 1958, it allows motor vehicles access to the park separate from local roads and non-motorized carriage roads. Highlights along the loop included Sieur de Monts, Sand Beach, Thunder Hole, Otter Cliffs, Jordan Pond, Cadillac Mountain, Eagle Lake, Bar Island, and Compass Harbor.
We started the loop drive at the Hulls Cove Visitor Center at the North entrance to the park, and shortly along the Park Loop we detoured to the nearby town of Bar Harbor where we stopped for lunch. Allen got to try an authentic Maine Lobster Roll at the Bar Harbor Lobster Company. After lunch, we took a walk through the town and around the Shore Path which begins at the Town Pier, goes a short distance to the East past the Bar Harbor Inn, then wraps around a point before continuing South for about 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile along the eastern shore of Mount Desert Island. Originally created around 1880, the path offers spectacular views of the Mount Desert Narrows and Atlantic Ocean beyond. Badly damaged by storms in January 2024, repair of the Shore Path was recently completed in June 2025.
After our visit to Bar Harbor, we rejoined the loop road and continued on around the south tip of Mount Desert Island for our last stop of the day at Jordon Pond. Jordan Pond is one of the park’s most pristine lakes, with outstanding surrounding mountain scenery. Glaciers carved the landscape, leaving behind numerous geological features. Jordan Pond’s beauty has become iconic—attracting multitudes of visitors for over a century who have enjoyed canoeing and kayaking, exploring nearby carriage roads, or trying famous tea and popovers at the Jordan Pond House. While we didn’t sample the popovers, we noted the many trails and carriage roads that intersected at Jordon Pond and planned to return another day with our e-bikes to explore the carriage roads.
Our second visit to the park was to explore the carriage roads on our e-bikes. Forty-five miles of rustic carriage roads, the gift of philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. and family, weave around the mountains and valleys of Acadia National Park. Rockefeller, a skilled equestrian, wanted to travel on motor-free byways via horse and carriage into the heart of Mount Desert Island. His construction efforts from 1913 to 1940 resulted in roads with sweeping vistas and close-up views of the landscape.
The roads were built to preserve the line of hillsides and save trees, align with the contours of the lands, and take advantage of scenic views. Approximately 16 feet wide, the carriage roads are an example of broken-stone roads commonly used at the turn of the 20th century. Gate lodges act as impressive welcomes to the carriage road system, stone-faced bridges span streams, waterfalls, motor roads, and cliff sides. Granite coping stones used as guardrails line the roads, affectionately called “Rockefeller’s teeth.”
We joined the carriage road system from the Brown Mountain Parking area near Lower Hadlock Pond off Sound Drive which runs along the east side of Somes Sound. From here we traveled east on the carriage roads about 3.5-miles to Jordon Pond. We crossed a number of the historical stone bridges on the way. We ate lunch at the Jordon Pond House on the deck overlooking Jordon Pond and the mountains and hills beyond. After lunch we rejoined the carriage road system and took the Tri-Lakes Loop, a 10.9-mile loop trail that travels around Eagle Lake, Bubble Pond, and Jordon Pond. The carriage roads had spectacular views of the Lakes and surrounding forests, hills, and mountains as they wound through the park, passing several more historic stone bridges along the way. We completed the loop and headed back to our parking spot to complete a very pleasant day of e-bike touring.
Our third visit to the park was to the Schoodic Peninsula which is the only part of Acadia National Park found on the mainland. It boasts granite headlands that bear erosional scars of storm waves and flood tides. Although similar in scenic splendor to portions of Mount Desert Island, the Schoodic Peninsula is a more secluded area. It is intentionally managed by Acadia National Park as a minimally-developed, low-visitation area. We drove the 6 mile, one-way loop road around Schoodic Peninsula which offers views of lighthouses, seabirds, and forested islands. There were turn-outs along the road where it was easy to stop and enjoy the scenery or take a short walk to the coast. We took the Arey Cove Road at the southern end of the loop to Schoodic Point, where we parked and walked out on to the windswept, rocky point providing spectacular views of Mount Desert Island, and out into the Gulf of Maine and the expanse of the Atlantic Ocean beyond.
Heading back to the loop drive from Schoodic Point, we stopped at the Schoodic Institute campus. When the U.S. Navy closed their Winter Harbor base on Schoodic Point in 2002, they turned the property back to the National Park Service, along with lodging, dining, and recreational facilities that now make up the largest of 18 National Park Service Research Learning Centers. We visited the Rockefeller Welcome Center in historic Rockefeller Hall that offered educational exhibits as well as park information and a park store. Rockefeller Hall was constructed in 1934 for the new naval base on Schoodic Peninsula. The base, strategically located on a quiet peninsula in by the north Atlantic Ocean, focused on radio communications with Europe. Like much of the base, Rockefeller Hall was funded by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. The building was designed by Grosvenor Atterbury in a strangely out-of-place French Eclectic style and intended to be the centerpiece of the base. For several years, it served as an operation center and military housing.
Based on the park ranger’s recommendation, we walked the 1-mile Sundew Trail which took us through woods on the Schoodic Institute campus to the west and north facing shores of Schoodic Point with more spectacular views across to Mount Desert Island.
We completed the loop road around the Schoodic Peninsular with a late lunch at the
Musquito Harbor Brewing Company in Winter Harbor on our way back to our campground. We very much enjoyed our three days visiting Acadia National Park, which gave us a very good look at and had some different areas of the park. It was a beautiful park with a wide range of scenery with a good range of driving, cycling, and hiking options.
Photos of our visits to the various areas of the park are provided below. Click on the thumbnails to view the full-size pictures.
We really enjoyed the 45-minute tour which was led by our knowledgeable and entertaining guide Ave Maria. The cave was on the small side compared to some of the more famous caves, but it contained several different rooms and passageways and a large amount of cave decorations including stalactites, stalagmites, columns, flowstone, cave popcorn, soda straws, and even some “cave bacon”. The formations are all calcium carbonate so they’re white except where people have touched them and turned them brown or where green algae had grown due to the cave being lit. There were several small pools in the cave which were nicely lit. Outside, they also had a petting zoo with goats, an alpaca, turkey, a white peahen, and several chickens.
Our guide shared a couple of interesting stories of the cave’s history. For nineteen years (1802–1821) the caverns were the home of William Wilson, who was also known as the “Pennsylvania Hermit.” Wilson withdrew from society after his failure to halt the execution of his sister Elizabeth for the murder of her twin sons. Following her death in Chester, Pennsylvania in 1786, William wandered westward across southeastern Pennsylvania, settling in the caverns in 1802. The Sweets of Solitude: Instructions to Mankind How They May Be Happy in a Miserable World, an essay reportedly written by Wilson during his time in the caverns, was published following his death. We bought a copy of this small book from the visitor store, and it made for some interesting reading after our visit.
A second story dates from 1919, when a group of teenagers made a cool discovery – a small wooden chest known today as the Mystery Box. Inside they found several stones, jewelry, foreign coins and more. The oldest piece in the box was a Moroccan coin dated 1288. To this day, no one knows who owned the box, but you can peek at its contents on display in the gift shop.
We have visited quite a few caves over the last couple of years including the famous Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, and Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. While Indian Echo Caverns is much smaller, it contains a good sampling of the cave decorations and features that are seen in the larger caves, all of which can be experienced during the entertaining 45-minute guided tour.
