Acadia National Park’s best known hiking trail, the Precipice, ascends the east face of Champlain Mountain. The trail begins just off the Park Loop Road, and rises about 1,000 feet in only 0.8 of a mile. Near the top of the trail, ladders and iron rungs assist hikers on their way.

Steep, slippery in the rain, exposed to hot sunlight in the summer, and ice-covered in the winter, The Precipice is where the most serious hiking accidents occur in Acadia. Often, those injured (or even killed) have gotten confused and wandered far off the trail.

Unfortunately for hikers (but fortunately for bird lovers), the Precipice often is closed in the spring because the east face of Champlain Mountain has become the favorite home of the peregrine falcons who once again nest in the national park. The trail remains closed until July or early August, approximately five weeks after chicks take their first flights from the nests. Since 1991, about 90 falcon chicks have been hatched in Acadia, 60 of them alongside the Precipice.