New England Fall Foliage Trip Day Ten: Adventures in Acadia National Park

What should one do at 5:30 in the morning on a clear day when staying only a mile from the Maine Coast? Get up and go watch the sunrise, of course! Claire and I speed-walked the mile and a half to the harbor in time to watch the sky light up announcing the impending arrival of the sun.

Julian joined us a few minutes later to capture the view. We inhaled the fresh morning air while cool coastal breezes swept across our faces and beams of sunlight penetrated our skin with warmth. We left the harbor invigorated and ready for the day.

Thankfully we were able to snag a vehicle reservation to drive up Cadillac Mountain a couple days ago when the park opened up an additional allotment of passes for that purpose. Acadia National Park makes a limited number of reservations available several months out, then an additional amount two days before at 10:00 a.m. I set my alarm to make sure I remembered to login to the National Park Service app (a relatively new development that seems well-designed for use at more than 400 national parks/historic sites across the country!) and purchase both the reservation and the park pass.

We arrived at the park between 8:30 and 9:00 and joined the throngs making the journey to the summit. Another clear day made for miles of visibility on every side of the mountain and gorgeous views of the harbor.

Embedded in a rock on a trail going the opposite direction from the parking lot is a weathered plaque marking the actual summit of Cadillac Mountain. It felt like a scavenger hunt trying to find it, but eventually we discovered the rock that housed it and gathered around for picture proof that we had made it to the top.

We drove back down the Cadillac Mountain Road until it intersected with Park Loop Road and traveled around the south end of Acadia National Park. The drive was gorgeous (even though we might have accidentally had to make it twice due to various one-way portions of the road…) and eventually led us to the trailhead for The Precipice Trail.

We squeezed into a [mostly] parking spot and boosted our energy with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before heading up. And by up, we mean straight up. [The trail traverses the rock face pictured behind and above us.]

The Precipice Trail is so named for a reason. A warning sign posted at the trailhead does its best to dissuade any timid hikers from making the trek.

But where’s the adventure in that?

We like traversing narrow ledges thousands of feet above the ground holding onto iron rungs drilled into the side of the mountain so we don’t plunge to an unseemly death below. Sarcasm aside, while this isn’t the trail for someone with a fear of heights, we never actually felt in danger. The path was cleared and marked, and it was always evident where to step and hold for safe passage. And, even more, it was exhilarating!

The view of the Atlantic Ocean from the summit of Champlain Mountain was breathtaking, but to be honest, as you can probably ascertain, the trail itself was the most exciting part of this adventure!

We decided we definitely deserved a reward after that climb, so we followed the Park Loop Road back around and into Bar Harbor to Ben & Bill’s Chocolate Emporium for some fresh ice cream. Since the large size was less than a dollar more than the small size, we ordered one large, which included four flavor choices, and each picked our flavor of choice, then grabbed spoons and shared the cup.

Plus, with that money that we saved we had extra to spend next door at The Stadium on an iced drink and fresh-baked walnut chocolate chip cookie. Apparently we were more eager than we realized to ingest these goodies because we forgot to get any pictures of the items. Oops! They were all good, but probably not worth the prices they charged for them.

We swung by the grocery store on our way back to the Bar Harbor Motel and grabbed food to go that we could eat in our room while chilling for the evening. So grateful we were able to enjoy these beautiful couple of days here in Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park before they close their doors next week for the end of their season!