Acadia National Park
Acadia National Park in Maine protects the natural beauty of the highest rocky headlands along the United States Atlantic coastline. It is considered by many to be the “Crown Jewel” of the North Atlantic coastline. The park includes 65 miles of rugged coastline on Mount Desert Island, Isle au Haut, and Schoodic Peninsula as well as 17 other coastal islands. In addition to the breathtaking coastline, the park’s landscape includes spanning lakes, ponds, meadows, and mix coniferous forests. From the shoreline, the landscape rises abruptly from sea level with eight mountains over 1,000 feet in elevation. At 1,530 feet, Cadillac Mountain is the highest point on Mount Desert Island and offers spectacular views of the coastline as well as unobstructed views of the sunrise.
Long before the arrival of Europeans, the Wabanaki (People of the Dawn) lived on Mount Desert Island year-round. From their camps, they hunted, fished, gathered berries, harvested clams, and traded with neighboring communities. In 1604, while mapping the North Atlantic coastline, French explorer Samuel Champlain recorded his observations of Mount Desert Island. For the next 150 years, the French and British competed to control this territory. Beginning in 1781, early British colonizers received land in exchange for establishing settlements on the island. These early European settlers built an economy based on the abundant natural resources: fishing, farming, granite quarrying, and shipping.
In the mid-1800s tourism offered a new income source. Inspired by the landscape paintings of artists from the Hudson River School, city dwellers flocked to Mount Desert Island. Enormous hotels and extravagant “cottages” built by some of America’s wealthiest families soon transformed the quiet farming and fishing villages of the island. Beginning in 1901, conservation-minded philanthropists worked to acquire 5,000 acres of land which they donated to the federal government for the establishment of a park. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the area Sieur de Monts National Monument. As more land donations expanded the monument, Congress re-designated the monument in 1919 to Acadia National Park, establishing the first eastern national park.
Interlaced with picturesque communities, modern Acadia National Park preserves about 38,000 acres with another 12,500 acres of conservation easements. The largest community on Mount Desert Island is Bar Harbor which is home to about 5,300 residents. The small seaside village has long been popular with tourists and America’s leading industrialists like the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, Fords, and Morgans who made Bar Harbor their summer retreat. Today, Bar Harbor is frequently visited by cruise ships and Main Street is lined with shops where visitors can sample Maine delicacies such as blueberry ice cream or lobster rolls!
The 27-mile Loop Road through Acadia National Park takes visitors to some of the park’s favorite attractions like Jordan Pond and Sand Beach. The 187-acre Jordan Pond was formed by the Wisconsin Ice Sheet during the last glacial period. Its crystal-clear waters have made it a popular destination for a scenic hike or enjoying a meal on the lawn at the restaurant located at the Jordan Pond Boat House.
Most of the coastline around Mount Desert Island is rocky, but the appropriately named Sand Beach is a very popular summertime destination in Acadia. Starting at Sand Beach, the Ocean Path is a two-mile walking trail that follows the coastline and offers spectacular views of the rocky coastline, towering cliffs rising out of the sea, and many of the offshore islands.
The signature feature of Acadia National Park is the forty-five miles of rustic carriage roads which weave around the mountains and valleys of the park. The carriage roads were a gift from the philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. who was a skilled horseman and wanted a way to travel on motor-free byways via horse and carriage into the heart of Mount Desert Island. Construction efforts from 1913 to 1940 resulted in what is regarded as the best and most extensive network of broken stone carriage roads in the United States. A total of 17 stone-faced bridges, each with a unique design, span streams, waterfalls, roads, and cliffsides. Today, the carriage roads are shared and beloved alike by hikers, bikers, skiers, and horseback riders.
