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In Acadia the leaves and the closing dates arrive in the same two weeks. The best-known forecast put the color peaking in the second week of October, 11 to 14 October, which was also the week the free bus stopped and the last two big cruise ships of the year called, and on 26 October it called the park fading. What follows is the calendar that decides a fall trip, with the source for every date, through the last closings of the year.
Still need a room? Bar Harbor after the bus stops has the hotels that stay open into November and through the winter, and where to stay weighs Bar Harbor against Southwest Harbor, Trenton and Ellsworth.
When the color peaks
The forecast. The More Than Just Parks foliage model, read on 26 October, puts peak color in Acadia on 12 October and told you to aim for 11 to 14 October. That day it called the park fading. It puts the low ground, which is most of the park’s area, at its peak around 13 October, and its week-by-week table calls 19 to 25 October just past peak. The date did not hold still. On 28 September the same model said 13 October, on 4 October it said 2 October, on 10 October 9 October, and from 17 October 12 October; it said on 31 October that 4 reports from Hancock County, which holds nearly all of the park, 3 at peak and 1 still green, left its date where it was, and that the reports outrank its own model.
The state’s range is wider. Maine’s official foliage service, run by the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, says two different things on two of its own pages:
- Its Eastern Maine page, which covers Bar Harbor, gives the typical peak week as the second week in October.
- Its FAQ says coastal and southern Maine peak in the third week of October, and its week-by-week guide puts the Downeast coast in 21 to 27 October.
The forecast put the peak at 12 October, and the state’s own weekly reports caught Zone 2 reaching it in the report for 14 October, between its second-week reading and the FAQ’s third week. A trip from here on is after the peak: expect some color with leaves down rather than the brightest days.
The state’s last report. The state’s weekly report for 14 October, headed “Maine’s 2026 Fall Foliage Season Goes Out with a Bang!”, put Zone 2, the Downeast zone that takes in Bar Harbor, at peak, with moderate leaf drop. A week earlier, on 7 October, Zone 2 had been at high color change (50 to 70 percent). Zone 1, the mid-coast and southern coast, was at peak too, and most of northern and western Maine was past peak. The state’s foliage map, last updated the same day, shows Zone 2 at peak, 70 to 100 percent. The state reports weekly from mid-September to mid-October, and it says of this one, “This may be our final report of the season.”
The closing calendar, date by date
Every closing that matters to a fall visitor, in order. Park dates are from the Park Service’s hours and seasons page, its table and its listing for each visitor center, read again on 1 November 2026, and the Jordan Pond House’s are its own; operator dates are from each operator’s own booking calendar, read on 23 September 2026, and those of the boats still running again on 21 and 26 October.
| Date | What changes |
|---|---|
| Sun 11 Oct | Last night at Seawall and Schoodic Woods campgrounds |
| Mon 12 Oct (holiday) | Island Explorer’s last day (the operator’s date). Seawall and Schoodic Woods close at 10 a.m. Sieur de Monts Nature Center closes, and so does the Acadia Gateway Center in Trenton on the Park Service’s listing for it. Last scheduled Bar Harbor to Winter Harbor ferry, and last sail of the schooner Margaret Todd |
| Tue 13 Oct | Norwegian Jewel in port (capacity 3,000). The Park Service’s date for the last bus. Last day at Thuya Garden in Northeast Harbor |
| Wed 14 Oct | Norwegian Breakaway in port (capacity 3,963). The Park Service’s hours table’s date for the Gateway Center, which its listing moved to the 12th this fall |
| Thu 15 Oct | Coastal Kayaking Tours’ last scheduled tour. The Park Service’s end date for Wildwood carriage rides. Bear Brook and Pretty Marsh picnic areas and Lakewood Beach close |
| Sat 17 Oct | Last Lulu lobster boat trip |
| Sun 18 Oct | Last carriage ride at Wildwood Stables (the operator’s date). Last night at Blackwoods |
| Mon 19 Oct | Blackwoods closes at 10 a.m. |
| Fri 23 Oct | Jordan Pond House restaurant closes |
| Sat 24 Oct | Last Bar Harbor Whale Watch Co. whale watch and nature cruise |
| Sun 25 Oct | Last day a Cadillac Summit reservation is required. Last Sail Acadia lobster boat and sloop trips, from Southwest and Northeast Harbor. The Cadillac Mountain Eco-Store and the Carriage Road Carry Out close |
| Wed 28 Oct | Thunder Hole gift shop closes |
| Sat 31 Oct | Hulls Cove Visitor Center and the park store close. Last Acadian Boat Tours nature cruise, 1 p.m. from 119 Eden Street in Bar Harbor |
| Sun 1 Nov | The Jordan Pond House gift store closes (the Park Service’s table gives Mon 2 Nov) |
| Sun 15 Nov | Unpaved park roads close to cars |
| Tue 1 Dec | Park Loop Road and the paved roads close to cars until 15 April |
The cruise dates are the town’s published schedule. The bus dates disagree by a day: the operator’s 2026 service calendar says buses run “through October 12, 2026”, and the Park Service’s Island Explorer page says service runs “through October 13”. The operator runs the buses, so plan on the 12th.
Bar Harbor’s hotels close on calendars of their own, not the park’s. Bar Harbor after the bus stops has the ones that stay open into November and through the winter, and Acadia in winter has the park from November to April.
The 12 to 14 October problem
Three days of the second week of October were the hardest to get around, with the color at its forecast peak:
- Monday 12 October was the holiday Monday and the Island Explorer’s last day.
- Tuesday 13 October had the Norwegian Jewel in port and, on the operator’s calendar, no free bus.
- Wednesday 14 October had the Norwegian Breakaway, the largest ship of Bar Harbor’s year, and still no bus.
Those days have passed, and what they leave is a late-fall trip with no free bus.
If you have a car, this is manageable, and what color remains is on the Loop Road. Drive the Park Loop Road, open to cars until 1 December, go up Cadillac early, and keep Bar Harbor town for the late afternoon. The cruise-ship page has the 2026 ship days.
If you do not, the season-end matters more than the color. The Loop Road bus’s route timetable had its last bus leaving the Visitor Center at 4:50 p.m. and Sand Beach at 5:25 p.m. until the 12th. You are down to taxis and a bike; a booked tour was an option too, until 31 October: on 27 October the two tours still selling 2026 dates had them to the 31st and none again until April and May 2027. Our comparison of the guided bus tours covers them and the $100 non-US fee a tour does not avoid.
Cadillac in October
The summit road needed a vehicle reservation through 25 October in 2026. It was $6 per vehicle, sold only on recreation.gov, and seventy percent of each day’s slots were released at 10 a.m. Eastern two days ahead.
The entry windows, from the Park Service’s reservations page:
| 1 — 15 October | 16 — 25 October | |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise (enter within) | 5:30 — 7 a.m. | 6 — 7:30 a.m. |
| Daytime (reservation times) | 7:30 a.m. — 6 p.m. | 8 a.m. — 5:30 p.m. |
The sunrise windows ran past sunrise. The US Naval Observatory puts sunrise in Bar Harbor at 6:31 a.m. on 1 October, 6:44 on the 12th and 7:01 on the 25th, so the end of every window fell after the sun was up.
From 26 October to 30 November no reservation is needed. With the clocks back on 1 November, sunrise in Bar Harbor is at 6:10 a.m. that day and 6:29 a.m. on the 15th. On 1 December the summit road closes to cars with the rest of the Park Loop Road. The Cadillac page has the release mechanics in full.
Where the color is, and what is closed
The Park Service’s own fall-color list. Its fall colors trip idea names the Park Loop Road, the carriage roads, paddling Jordan Pond and Eagle Lake, and six hikes: the Bubbles and Connors Nubble loop, the Jesup Path and Hemlock Path loop at Sieur de Monts (birch and hemlock, with a boardwalk), the Dorr Mountain South Ridge loop, the Beehive, the Jordan Cliffs loop and the Jordan Pond Path. On a bike, the carriage roads cover the most of it in a day — the rules are here, including the one e-bike class they allow.
Beech Mountain: partly closed. The Park Service’s alert, effective 21 September 2026, closes the eastern section of the Beech Mountain Loop Trail “from a junction just beyond the parking lot to just below the summit at the fire tower”. It names three routes that still reach the summit: “the outer loop of the Beech Mountain Loop Trail, Beech South Ridge Trail and Beech West Ridge Trail.” The outer loop is the longer, western side, past the open granite slabs over Long Pond that the park’s trail page calls a popular sunset spot. The fire tower’s first platform is open. There is no bus to this trailhead.
Ocean Path: the southern section has been closed since 31 August, from the trailhead across from the Otter Point parking lot to the trail’s southern end. Sand Beach to Thunder Hole is open. Details on the Ocean Path page.
Schoodic Head by road: closed since 31 August, from Schoodic Loop Road to the summit, for repairs. The ferry across from Bar Harbor made its last scheduled crossing of 2026 on 12 October — the Schoodic page has its timetable.
All three closures come from the Park Service’s alerts, and on 26 October none had a reopening date.
Camping and eating
Camping. Seawall and Schoodic Woods took their last campers on the night of 11 October, and Blackwoods its last on the night of 18 October, so the park’s campgrounds are closed until next season. All three are reservation-only on recreation.gov, and the campground page has how the releases work.
Jordan Pond House. The restaurant closed for the season after 23 October, and the Carriage Road Carry Out upstairs after the 25th. The gift store’s last day was 1 November, the operator’s date; the Park Service’s table gives 2 November. In season, its own site says most tables are kept for walk-ins, with an average wait of about 40 minutes in peak season, and reservations are limited and on Resy.
Short days
The US Naval Observatory puts sunset in Bar Harbor at 6:13 p.m. on 1 October, 5:54 p.m. on the 12th and 5:32 p.m. on the 25th, and, with the clocks back, 4:22 p.m. on 1 November and 3:55 p.m. on 1 December. The last Loop Road bus left Sand Beach at 5:25 p.m. until the 12th. Without a bus, a fall day in the park is a daylight day unless you have a car and a headlamp, and in November the sun is down by half past four.
On the water, the 2026 season is over. The schooner Margaret Todd’s last sunset sail was on 12 October, the whale watch’s last trip on Saturday 24 October, and the lobster boats’ last trips between the 17th and the 25th. The sunset cruise page sets each boat’s fall timetable against the sunset, and has the schooner’s 2027 sailing dates.
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