3 Day Long Weekend in Acadia National Park

For the past couple years, it has been a dream of mine to road trip to as many National Parks as accessible by car. I’ve spent hours researching the most efficient route to hit all the parks in the continental U.S., 47 of them, discovering the entire trip would take around 2 months to complete at 15,000 miles. I’ve chosen to skip Florida and visit those parks on a solely Floridian trip, saving myself around 1,300 miles. While I start saving up the money to afford a usable camper to house my dog and myself, along with the cost of gas, I decided to check Acadia National Park, Maine off the list. 

With my road trip partner onboard, I jumped in Liam’s car and we started the four-and-a-half-hour drive to Mount Desert Island, Maine. If you’ve read my previous road trip articles, you know Liam converted his Volvo into a road tripping machine- complete with colorful LED lights wrapped around the interior for a rainbow variety of mood lighting. Unfortunately, the car radio has recently decided to stop working, so we spent the next few hours either discussing the latest Audible book Liam is binging or sitting in comfortable silence. 

If you’ve ever visited Acadia National Park, you’ll know there is no real ‘entrance’ into the forest. Signs are posted everywhere directing traffic to particular attractions of the park, but there are no concrete boarders stating you have officially entered the area. This being said, we quickly got lost…and hungry. Eventually we found a spot to pull off the main road to enjoy a scenic view of the nature reserve to devour some pre-made salads before either of us (mostly me) became aggressively hangry. We knew the weather forecast predicted rain, but Maine really brought its’ all when it came to storms. Our friend Jake was extremely generous to let Liam and I sleep at his family’s empty rental property, so we headed there to get out of the weather.

After some teriyaki stir fry, a few too many Downeast ciders, my first Fortnite tournament, and playing Florida Georgia Line songs too loudly, we decided to call it a night. We had to rest up for a full day of planned outdoor activities in the morning.  

Jake picked us up around 11 a.m. to give us an exclusive insider tour of the entire Island. Growing up summering in Acadia, Jake knew of both the hot-spots for tourism, and the local hidden gems. He immediately took us to Thunder Hole, an infamous spot where the tide comes crashing into a cave on

the cliff’s surface and creates a roaring echo that resembles thunder. Next on the tour was a short hike up to Schooner Head and down to Sand Beach. The destinations of Mount Desert Island are very adequately named. Sand Beach, as you might assume, is exactly that: a sandy beach. Thunder Hole, Mount(ain) Desert Island, Park Loop Road, Bar Harbor Island, all names that accurately describe what you’re in for. The only spots with semi-creative names we visited are Cadillac Mountain, a scenic yet frigid spot overlooking the entire park, and Jordan Pond, a water pool named after its’ discoverer. 

I was genuinely surprised at the amount of deer I saw roaming freely on the island. I know Maine is known for their abundance of wildlife, but the deer truly are not scared of tourists in the area. We almost hit a few driving! I told Jake we weren’t leaving until I saw a moose, but we didn’t get the chance to find one. 

All in all, Liam and I were incredibly lucky to have an experienced tour guide on our side. We broke for lunch around 3 p.m. and the group went our separate ways for the evening. We were genuinely tired, the gray weather not boosting our energy levels, so the afternoon was a relaxed one. Liam decided to drive over an hour just to get a Dunkin Donuts iced coffee before settling in to complete some consulting jobs.

We spent the rest of our night laughing to old SNL clips and drinking white wine. We left early Monday morning, cleaning up the guest house as best we could and leaving our hosts a bottle of my favorite wine, Santa Margherita. Checking off Acadia National Park on the list, my first National Park on the road trip is complete!

♡ Abigail Reagan