Acadia Park Loop and Cadillac Mountain

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Bar Harbor

   Bar Harbor is the door to Mount Desert Island, the large granite island off the coast of Maine where Acadia National Park spreads over mountains, ponds and rocky shore. The town sits on Frenchman Bay, with the humped shapes of the Porcupine Islands offshore, and it has been a summer destination since the 1800s, when wealthy families from Boston and Philadelphia built huge shingle mansions they called cottages. A great fire in 1947 burned a lot of them, but the town rebuilt, and its streets are now a mix of old inns, gift shops, and lobster restaurants.

   Read the complete Bar Harbor write-up.

2. 2. Sieur de Monts

   Sieur de Monts is the quiet doorway to the Acadia you came for, a shaded corner of Mount Desert Island with a spring, a nature centre and a small botanical garden. The name comes from Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts, the French nobleman who led the expedition that landed on these coasts in 1604 with Samuel de Champlain. The spring was developed by George Dorr, one of the park's founders, who spent decades assembling land and gifting it to the nation. Acadia became the first national park east of the Mississippi in 1916, under the name Lafayette, and took its current name in 1929.

   Read the complete Sieur de Monts write-up.

3. 3. Jordan Pond

   Jordan Pond is one of the loveliest bodies of water in Maine, a deep, clear lake cut by glaciers and ringed with spruce and granite. At the far end two rounded hills called the Bubbles rise like a pair of bumps on the skyline, and the water is so clear that you can see boulders far below the surface. It is a place where rides slow down, because the setting asks for it and because the car park beside the lake is usually busy.

   Read the complete Jordan Pond write-up.

4. 4. Back to Bar Harbor

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Bar Harbor write-up.