How much can you pack in to a three-day trip to Acadia National Park and still have fun?
For my family it would include exploring 16 miles of carriage trails, hiking to the top of a couple of mountains and completing the park's EarthCache program.
It sounds like a lot to do in three days – and it was – but as clichéd as it sounds, Acadia is awesome and we left wishing we could have done more.
DAY 1
We rode the carriage trail around Eagle Lake our first day at the park. It was just shy of six miles and thanks to a tip from one of the rangers, a fairly easy ride. The trick about biking around Eagle Lake is to ride with the lake to your LEFT. It's mostly downhill that way and a good introduction to the carriage trails.
After our ride around Eagle Lake we decided to drive to the first set of coordinates we were given for the park's EarthCache program (a geology program requiring a GPS unit). The location's name was not provided, but it wasn't hard to figure out where we were headed because we were familiar with the park from our visit a few years ago.
Once we arrived at the first EarthCache location, we had to find a clue to get the waypoint (GPS coordinates) for the next location.
I love a good puzzle and the girls enjoy treasure hunts, so after a bit of looking around, we found our clue. But it didn't give us the complete waypoint, so we had to answer a question related to the geological feature we were looking at (the answer was easily found on a nearby kiosk) to determine what that missing number was.
I don't want to give away any secrets because this program (very clever and well done) is based on finding locations that are not identified by name. But after answering geology questions and figuring out the waypoints to new locations, we ended up climbing to the top of the South Bubble to get more information to help us solve another riddle.
Our first day at the park was an active one with all the biking and hiking and driving we did, but everyone left energized for more.
DAY 2
Our second bike ride was supposed to be only "a bit more difficult" (my description to the family that morning) than Eagle Lake, but I took a wrong turn and it turned into a whopper of a challenge.
We started at the Parkman Mountain trail head and made a left turn prematurely (OK, I made the turn and my family followed me). We should have taken a right from the trail head and then a left at the intersection labeled No. 13 to get to the Waterfalls Bridge. We did eventually get to that bridge, but in a major round-about sort of way.
We ended up on the Around the Mountain Trail and it was not until we actually arrived at Gilmore Meadow that I realized our mistake. But it was a beautiful spot, so we stopped for a snack break and took a few minutes to admire the handiwork of a beaver trying to cut down a tree.
We opted to continue on the Seven Bridges Trail, which turned out to be a serious elevation gain (about 450 feet) and not a ride I would recommend for children unless they are strong riders.
The girls were troopers on this trail and the long rides we've been taking around southern and central Maine this spring really helped them handle this particular ride. But truth be told, we did quite a bit of walking with our bikes and took many water/snack breaks along the way.
The whole trek turned out to be nearly 10 miles, which was mostly uphill, before we eventually made it to the Waterfall Bridge. The kids were not as impressed with the beautiful views – or the waterfall – as they would have been had we taken the shorter loop I had originally planned.
And as if this is any surprise, the girls (and Fino) spent a good deal of time at the top of Parkman Mountain lamenting my map-reading skills (which normally are pretty good) while eating their lunch.
Oops.
Since we had hiked a couple of miles around the Otter Cliffs trail on Gorham Mountain before we undertook this bike ride, my crew was seriously tired.
But everyone seemed to forgive my poor navigation skills once they ordered big sundaes at the Dairy Bar before heading back to our cottage for the night.
Oh, and we did manage to complete the EarthCache program and report back to the ranger station with the answer to the final riddle before we left the park. I must 'fess up, however, that one of the riddles required some deeper thought and a math calculation that I'm embarrassed to say took Fino and me more than a few minutes to figure out.
We were tired. That must have been the reason for our lack of problem-solving skills. Yeah, that's it.
DAY 3
The kids and Fino woke up on our last day and said they needed a break from bike riding, so we decided to hike to The Bowl from Gorham Mountain (the kids liked exploring the cliffs on the mountain the day before) and maybe tackle the Beehive. We enjoyed the trails, but with the elevation gain to the summit of Gorham Mountain and then another bit of climbing to The Bowl, we decided to skip the Beehive and took the Ocean Drive Trail to loop back to our car.
The Beehive (rated "difficult" by the park service because of exposed ledges and cliffs) seemed too much for our bike-weary legs. Next time, we decided – like we needed a reason to return.
The events of this trip – the fun as well as the navigationally challenged – have been shared with much animation by the girls to anyone who will listen.
If you've never been to Acadia National Park, you really are missing out on a wonderful, relatively inexpensive family vacation. We stayed in a small cabin with an efficiency kitchen that kept our food costs minimal. The park fee was $10 for the week, and apart from the gas to drive there, we had no other expenses.
IF YOU GO
Maps of the park (including a detailed one of the carriage roads) to help you plan your trip: www.nps.gov/acad/planyourvisit/maps.htm
EarthCache program at Acadia: www.nps.gov/acad/earthcache.htm
The Beaver Log, the park's official newspaper, lists all ranger-led programs at Acadia during the summer and fall: www.nps.gov/acad/parknews/newspaper.htm
Nearby lodging/camping listings: www.barharborinfo.com/lodging_frame2.html
Originally published in Raising Maine Magazine, July 2008
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