Filter by what actually decides it - whether there are iron rungs, whether the drop-offs will stop you, and whether the free bus goes there. Trails that close for nesting falcons are flagged on the card. Every entry says when we last checked it.
Find the right trail
Filters
Showing all 5 trails.
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The Beehive Trail
Rungs, ledges and 450 feet of exposure in under a mile. The cheapest way to find out whether Acadia's iron-rung trails are for you.
1.4 mi 450 ft Strenuous Drop-offs Iron rungs Island Explorer -
The Precipice Trail
Iron rungs bolted to a cliff, 1,000 feet up in under a mile. Closed most springs for nesting falcons, and a trail the Park Service says not to descend.
3.2 mi 1,000 ft Extreme Seasonal closure Drop-offs Iron rungs No bus -
Jordan Pond Path
3.3 nearly flat miles around a glacial pond with the Bubbles beyond it. The easiest famous hike in Acadia — but the western half is not the eastern half.
3.3 mi Easy Island Explorer -
Cadillac North Ridge Trail
The way up Cadillac that needs no reservation, starting at a bus stop. It is 4.4 miles round trip, because there is no way down from the summit but back.
4.4 mi Moderate Island Explorer -
Ocean Path
Most people walk 0.7 miles to Thunder Hole and think they have done it. The full trail is 2.2 miles each way, and only the first part is accessible.
4.4 mi Easy Drop-offs Island Explorer
Nothing matches all of those at once. Try dropping one filter - on a park this compact, most trade-offs are real.
We'll write when Acadia changes
Every page here carries the date we last checked it. This is that same checking, sent to you instead of waited for — a reservation window opening, the Island Explorer season changing, a trail closed.
Leave an address and we'll write when something in Acadia actually changes. That is the whole list — no schedule, no filler, and some months nothing at all.
Or skip the form entirely — everything we send is also posted on the changelog, free and dated.
Photo credits
- The Precipice Trail: Fredlyfish4, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Jordan Pond and the Bubbles: NPS / Victoria Stauffenberg, Public domain
- The view from Cadillac Mountain: NewTestLeper79, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Otter Cliffs: Aaron Zhu, CC BY-SA 3.0
