Acadia Mountain

 It was a foggy day by the coast, but inland it was just overcast.  We decided to explore Acadia Mountain a bit, to see what that hike is like. 

The trail begins across from the parking lot on rt 3.  Honestly, crossing Rt 3 with 4 little ones and a dog was one of the scariest parts of the hike!  The cars whiz by very quickly on that stretch of road.  Once we got safely to the trail head, the trail starts rising immediately with a rock scramble.  After we’d gained a little elevation, it became a more wooded hike for a little while.  The trail seemed to alternate between scrambles up a rocky cliff, and pleasant woodsy trail (some of which is steep). 

Some of the rocky outcroppings had stone steps carved into them, which made them much easier to climb.  But just as we thought we were getting to the top, we saw more and more cliffs to climb.  The littlest trail monkeys were tired and hungry, so we turned around and headed back to the car.  Overall, a very pleasant hike.  Our trail monkeys are better on a climb than on a flat walk, so they were quite satisfied with this mountain. 

On our way down, we decided to take the Man O War brook fire road back to route 3 (well, Andrew decided, we just chased after him!).  There seems to be space to park next to the mouth of the fire road, with no need to cross a very busy road.  Those with very young children may want to park there, take the road a short way to the intersection with the Acadia Mountain trail, and turn right. 

Although the summit seems to be easily gotten to as an out-and-back, we do not recommend continuing the trail down the mountain on the other side.  There are some steep cliffs and a walk on a ledge along the cove, that would be frightening to do with young children.