Otter Cliffs
Since the mid-1970s, Otter Cliffs, about 500 feet wide and up to 100 feet high, has become the most popular rock climbing spot in Maine, and one of the few places anywhere where you can climb right above the ocean.
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Magnificent Views at Every Turn
Fabbri Memorial & Picnic Area
On the Park Loop Road at the edge of Otter Cove, this modest monument next to an Acadia National Park picnic area honors Alessandro Fabbri, a banking partner of J.P. Morgan’s who summered in Bar Harbor at the beginning of the 20th century
Compass Harbor
Located less than a mile south of downtown Bar Harbor, heading towards the Sieur de Monts Entrance to the Park Loop Road, George’s B. Dorr’s Old Farm property is protected as a small isolated section of Acadia National Park.
Frenchman Bay
One cruising guide calls Frenchman (not Frenchman’s) “Maine’s most dramatic bay.”
Ship Harbor & Wonderland Trails
These two very popular Acadia National Park hiking trails are found about a mile apart on the southwest shore of Mount Desert Island.
Bar Island
Bar Harbor gets its name from the sand and gravel bar that blocks the western end of the harbor when it’s exposed for a few hours on either side of low tide.
Porcupine Islands
Local legend says that the artists who visited Mount Desert Island beginning in the 1830s named these four islands in Frenchman Bay, just offshore from Bar Harbor.
Thompson Island
Visitors to Acadia National Park often don’t realize that when they drive off the mainland in Trenton, and out over the Mount Desert Narrows, they first cross another, smaller island before reaching Mount Desert Island.
Ocean Drive
Acadia National Park’s scenic Ocean Drive begins at the park entrance station and continues along the coast, passing Sand Beach, Thunder Hole, and Otter Cliffs.
Great Head
An enjoyable loop trail, which the park classifies as moderate, circles around Great Head in less than two miles, providing excellent ocean views along most of the way.
Otter Cove
The Otter Cove area (just past Otter Cliffs and Otter Point) provides one of the best viewpoints along the Park Loop Road, giving visitors good looks both out to sea and inland.
Baker Island Light
The southernmost of the Cranberry Islands, about four miles from Mount Desert Island, Baker was settled in the early 1800s by William and Hannah Gilley and their three children.
Somes Sound
The five-mile-long body of water that divides the eastern and western halves of Mount Desert Island, like the town of Somesville at its northern end, is named for Abraham Somes, one of the first settlers on the island.
Bear Island Lighthouse
There has been a lighthouse since 1839 on Bear Island, smallest of the Cranberry Islands at the entrance to Northeast Harbor.
Beech Mountain
This 839-foot peak, located between Echo Lake and Long Pond, provides hikers with probably the best view, for the least effort, anywhere in Acadia National Park.
Sieur de Monts Spring
Sieur de Monts Spring was a favorite location of George Dorr’s, the first superintendent of Acadia who built a springhouse there in 1909 and had the words ‘Sweet Waters of Acadia’ carved into a large rock.
Sand Beach
Sand Beach is what’s called a natural pocket beach, about 300 yards wide, tucked at the northern end of Newport Cove between Great Head and the Beehive.
Schoodic Peninsula
Across Frenchman Bay to the east of Bar Harbor, Schoodic Peninsula sticks out into the Gulf of Maine south of Maine Route 186.
Huguenot Head
This is the name given to the natural bump (a ‘huge knot’?) on the headland you cross when hiking the Beachcroft Trail on the northwest side of Champlain Mountain. In earlier times Huguenot Head (692’ up) was known as Round Peak or Picket Mountain.
Jordan Pond
The 187-acre Jordan Pond, second-largest body of water in Acadia National Park (after Eagle Lake), is also the park’s deepest, dropping to 150 feet.
Thunder Hole
The most visited spot along Acadia’s Ocean Drive, Thunder Hole is a natural wonder.
Champlain Mountain
Newport, at the eastern end of the Acadia National Park range, today is called Champlain Mountain in honor of the French explorer, Samuel de Champlain, who gave Mount Desert Island its name.
Shore Path
This pedestrian path along the edge of Frenchman Bay, maintained by the Village Improvement Association of Bar Harbor, begins at the town pier and extends nearly a mile.
Eagle Lake
The 437-acre Eagle Lake is the largest ‘pond’ wholly within the boundaries of Acadia National Park.
Gulf of Maine
The Gulf of Maine, a unique ‘sea within a sea’ up to 1,500 feet deep, is sometimes called “New England’s own ocean.”
The Beehive
This bump on the southern slope of Champlain Mountain, which provides a scenic backdrop for visitors to Sand Beach, looks… well, like a beehive.
Carriage Roads of Acadia
From 1913 to 1940, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and his road crews constructed 57 miles of carriage roads (45 miles in Acadia National Park) used today for non-motorized travel including walking or hiking, and riding bicycles, horses, or in carriages.
Park Loop Road
This 27-mile paved road on the eastern half of Mount Desert Island, as its name implies, loops through Acadia National Park, providing an excellent introduction to the park’s many different scenic glories including Sieur de Monts Spring, the Ocean Drive, Sand Beach, Thunder Hole, Otter Cliff, Jordan Pond, and Cadillac Mountain.
Bass Harbor Head Light
The area’s only lighthouse actually on Mount Desert Island, the 32-foot Bass Harbor light was built in 1858 to guide mariners around the southwestern end of the island and in and out of Blue Hill Bay.
The Precipice
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.
Cadillac Mountain
Rising to 1,530 feet, Cadillac Mountain achieves the highest elevation in Acadia National Park and on Mount Desert Island.
Wildwood Stables
Located along the Park Loop Road, just to the southeast of the Jordan Pond area, Wildwood Stables takes advantage of the scenic carriage roads whose construction was supervised and financed by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. between 1913 and 1940.
Dorr Mountain
Previously known as Dry, and then Flying Squadron, this 1270-foot peak just to the east of Cadillac Mountain today is named for George B. Dorr, “the Father of Acadia.”
Western Mountains
The Western Mountains dominate the landscape in the, yes, western part of Mount Desert Island. Traditionally this area has been known as the island’s ‘backside,’ although in recent, more genteel years a movement has been underway to get people to refer to it as the ‘quiet side.’