Acadia

Acadia is one steep climb after another once you get off the roads and onto the trails. The mountains may only been 600-1,500 ft tall, but the trail might only be a half a mile long while you make that climb.

I spent my first day out at the Schoodic Peninsula. The hiking there is a bit easier, and the schoodic loop road is perfect for a bike ride. The road goes right along the rocky coast and while you can drive it in your car it's only a ten mile or so bike trip and the views are much easier to appreciate from your bike seat.

The remainder of the trip I spent on Mount Desert Island. This is the part of the park with the most famous site of Acadia; Cadilac Mountain & Jordan's Pond. Unlike the secluded feeling of the Schoodic Peninsula, Mount Desert Island is pretty packed with a few different towns, several developed camp grounds, and lots of tourist crawling all over the beaches and easier trails.

It rained like crazy my first morning on this side of the park, which put a bit of a damper on climbing Cadilac. As you can see in the photos the whole trail system turned into one big waterfall, and there were flooded roads everywhere. It was a little scary trying to find a safe place to park without getting washed off the side of the road, but watching the water pour off the mountain made it all worth it.