park loop road

Take your time and enjoy the ride around the park loop road. Stop at the overlooks and see Bar Harbor, the ocean, the blow holes and more. A great way to spend time if its too hot or too cold to get out on the trails.

When I think of Maine I think of Acadia. It’s rocky coastlines, panoramic views and towering pine trees will definitely give you something to remember Maine by. This road takes you right through it all. I highly recommend the drive.

We had visited Acadia NP during every season except winter and wanted to see the park with snow. It was truly magical! There is a National Park Service brochure, Winter in Acadia, that you can access online, showing how to access Park Loop Road, where restrooms are available, and rules for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, hiking, camping, and ice fishing. The only sections of Park Loop Road that are open to cars are the 2 miles from Sand Beach to Otter Cliffs (access from Schooner Head Rd one mile south of Bar Harbor on Route 3, and exit via Otter Cliff Rd back to Route 3) and also there is access to Jordan Pond via Jordan Pond Rd BEFORE the beach in Seal Harbor if driving south on Route 3 through the town of Otter Creek. We have visited the park almost every summer and totally missed the turn off. a few people were snowmobiling on the unplowed side Park Loop Road. We also met cross country skiers and snowshoers. We hiked with our dog on the packed snow with waterproof boots, being careful not to go into the cross country ski tracks. The entire 27 miles of Park Loop Road, including the road up to Cadillac Mountain, is open to those with snowmobiles. That looked like lots of fun but there is no place to rent snowmobiles in Bar Harbor. Cadillac Mountain Sports rents snowshoes and cross country skis. Try to visit on a day with little to no wind, park your car in the Sand Beach parking lot, and walk along the path next to road to really enjoy the scenery. At Jordan Pond, we were able to actually walk ON the pond but without snow shoes the snow was too deep to access the carriage trails. We plan to return again next winter!

Excellent ocean views, easy accessibility for those that drive their car, and great places to stop and rest and take in the beauty. The most gorgeous part of the drive is along the ocean between the beach and Otter Cliffs. The Jordan Pond House is a great place to stop after hiking, and Cadillac Mountain should be climbed afterwards to complete a great day's adventure.

You will be awed, refreshed, revived and "sold" if you choose this as one of the very first things you do upon your first visit to Mount Desert Island!

We followed the Park Loop Road stopping for tons of beautiful pics. Highly enjoyable!We went back the next evening for pics of the sunset on Cadillac Mt.

me and my wife went on a fall leaf tour a few years ago to new England, flew into boston and drove up to acadia, stayed in bar harbor. eating seafood, and enjoying the beauty of the national park and the area, I highly recommend it

The Drive on the park loop road is very relaxing. We stopped at the beach and sat for a while. This is the only beach for miles and miles and is all crushed shells from the glacier period.

We enjoyed the many diverse sites that are accessible on the loop. From Cadillac Mountain to Sand Beach you get a broad spectrum of things to see and do.

I was driving so I couldn't do that much sightseeing but from what I saw, it was beautiful. Next time, I have somebody else do the driving so that I can enjoy the scenery. There are places to stop and enjoy the view though so you can take a break!

Visiting Acadia National Park was one of the highlights of my 5 weeks in NE USA and eastern Canada.Really beautiful scenery of the majestic Maine coastline with its lush vegetation and thundering waves over the rocky coastline.Beautiful stone bridges and cottages, both shoreline and inland vistas and a sense of really communing with nature make this a fantastic place to visit.Highly recommended.

Spent the day driving around Acadia National Park. The views were great. Many places to stop for hikes or scenic overlooks.

Acadia national Park should not be missed. If you are not a hiker, you can still enjoy the park. There is a Loop Road, approximately 25 miles, which you can drive. There are plenty of pull offs, where you can experience wonderful vistas and overlooks. If you are a biker, this is a challenge of a ride. It is all hills. We visited in October and it was not very crowded and the foliage was beautiful. We were told that it can be very crowded in the summer months with very little air to breathe.

Park Loop Road does just that, all the way around the immediate parts of the park. Lovely roads with so many fall colors. We just loved the drive.

We spent a late afternoon and morning during the peak fall color season. We’d recommend the 15-minute orientation film at the visitor’s center that shows Acadia at its finest from sunrise to sunset. Weather wasn’t ideal for our drive half way up 1,500-foot Cadillac Mountain to see the sunrise (at 6:50) from the eastern edge of the US (a surprisingly popular event). The sunrise was obscured by clouds and mist. Still, a drive on even part of the 28-mile “Park Loop” offers striking “picture postcard” scenes at every turn. This was our first visit and we were a bit surprised by the long drive from Bangor to get there and found the “Park Loop” a little confusing, but it was well worth it. Don’t miss the Sand Beach and Jordan’s Pond.