Acadia's Longer Hiking Trails Are Seldom Crowded

by Kathi MacNaughton
(Boise, ID, USA)

My daughters and I have vacationed in Acadia National Park many times over the past two decades. If you read the statistics, it's one of the most crowded national parks in its high season (summer of course).

But we love to hike and it's been our experience that most of the hiking trails in Acadia are not that busy. Most people seem to stick to the Park Loop Road or the Ocean Path that follows much of it. Precipice (when it's open), Beehive and South Bubble are also usually fairly crowded. We've found that the further you're willing to hike, the less people you'll see. Most people that visit the parks just don't seem to want to hike that far.

Some of our favorite uncrowded hiking trails in Acadia are the Jordan Stream Trail, the Canon Brook Trail and the West Face Cadillac Trail. You can read about them on our Acadia website. (Please don't consider this just a plug for our site. I'd just love for more people to know how you can enjoy Acadia without fighting crowds.)

Another way to have an uncrowded vacation in Acadia is to rent a canoe and take it out on Long Pond, which is really lake-size. It's such a huge lake, it's easy to "lose" other canoe-ers pretty quickly.

Visiting Acadia in the cooler weather of spring or later fall is another great way to see the park without the crowds.