For this early Fall adventure, we explore Acadia National Park, on Mt. Desert Island in Maine. Located just outside the town Bar Harbor, on the coast of Maine, Acadia offers a great combination of mountains, ocean vistas, and seaside cliffs.

This was actually a “real vacation” compared to my typical backpacking over-nighters. Yes, we took hot showers every day and slept under a roof! There is no backcountry camping permitted within Acadia Nation Park (there are two pay camp-sites located nearby on Mt Desert Island), but it’s a perfect destination for dayhikes by day and restaurants and shops by night. Plus, you get to visit the “lobster pounds” and eat the best lobster in the world after a day of hiking.

If you stay in the more populated Bar Harbor you can literally walk to the park from some spots. We chose to stay in the quieter Southwest Harbor on the other side of the island, but it’s still only about 20 minutes from Acadia’s main entrance and the famed Park Loop Road. It’s also minutes from the less visited western section, which includes the Beech Mountain and Beech Cliff trails. Just to be thorough, we stayed an extra night in Bar Harbor as well. For the sake of science.

This video was filmed on Champlain Mountain on our last day. Unfortunately, it rained for the first 3.5 days of our trip. We didn’t let that stop us from hiking and exploring, but it did limit the filming. Luckily, my wife still took plenty of pics, so those are sprinkled in for good measure throughout the video.

Speaking of rain, things were still a bit wet, so we decided to skip the Beehive Trail and Precipice Trail this time around. These steep and exposed cliff routes are iconic Acadia trails, so they’re definitely on the shortlist for the next time!