No car, no problem: Exploring Acadia National Park by bike
“We’ve got our bikes,” I said to the ranger, gesturing to my husband and our bikes, as I stood at a help desk inside the small Acadia National Park office in downtown Bar Harbor. It was a stunning August day, and we had just arrived in Bar Harbor by ferry from our temporary home base on the Schoodic Peninsula.
I explained that we planned to take a nice loop route around Acadia National Park. “What’s the best way to get into the park from here?”
“I would recommend starting farther south — it’s less crowded down there,” the ranger said, smiling, as she pointed at a parking lot many, many miles away from Bar Harbor.
“But wouldn’t it make more sense to start closer to town?” I asked.
“You can take the shuttle back north,” she advised.
“But…we’re already here,” I said, feeling more confused by the minute. “Why would we bike so far out of town just to bike back toward it?”
She explained that the parking lots closest to town filled up the quickest, and we were less likely to find a spot at this time of day.
That’s when I realized why we were talking past each other: She didn’t understand that we didn’t have a car.
When I finally explained our situation, the ranger and I stood there laughing over the mutual misunderstanding. Then, she asked, puzzled: “If you don’t have your car…how did you get here?”
Judging by that ranger’s reaction, I assume it’s not popular or common to navigate Mount Desert Island without a car. In my opinion, that’s a darn shame — not only because Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park boast an extensive (and free!) shuttle system that makes it easy to hit countless trails, restaurants and viewpoints, but also because the bike infrastructure is incredible.
Acadia is the only American national park with a dense network of carriage roads — wide, well-kept, meandering crushed-stone paths that once conveyed the East Coast’s landed gentry from viewpoint to viewpoint by horse-drawn carriage. These days, some tourists still ride around the park in those carriages, taking in the beautiful surroundings in style. But mostly, the carriage roads today are full of horseback riders, beginner hikers and hundreds of cyclists of all ages and abilities. (I’m told that if you visit in winter, you’ll spot cross-country skiers and even some snowmobilers zipping down the groomed paths.)
With all these built-in bike trails (thanks for the swell idea, John D. Rockefeller!), who wouldn’t want to get around on two wheels rather than four, I thought? I expected to be sharing the roads into the park with dozens of cyclists — yet it seemed the vast majority of bicycling visitors had chosen to drive to Acadia and pay for parking instead.
I’m convinced that if more people knew there were ways to get to, and get around, Mount Desert Island without a car, they’d choose to do it in a heartbeat. After all, it’s cheaper, more sustainable, more convenient and more fun! So without further ado, here’s my little guide to going carless in New England’s only national park.
Getting there
If you’ve traveled to Maine with a car but you’re reluctant to navigate the parking and traffic on Mount Desert Island, I present you with this fantastic alternative: The Downeast Windjammer, a small walk-on ferry.
Most people aren’t even aware that it’s possible to take a ferry to Mount Desert Island from the mainland. That might be because the ferry’s location is slightly out of the way — about a half an hour’s drive north of Ellsworth, the town most drivers will pass through on the way south to Bar Harbor. But in my opinion, the experience is more than worth the additional 25 miles of driving.
The Downeast Windjammer departs several times a day from Winter Harbor, a tiny town on Maine’s Schoodic Peninsula. The journey to Bar Harbor typically takes about 45 minutes and almost feels like a miniature cruise, thanks to the drop-dead-gorgeous scenery and the affable captain who goes out of his way to point out the marine life swimming alongside the boat. Ian and I spotted a porpoise and a sunfish on our ride — plus several bald eagles and a very cool island lighthouse.
If you don’t have a car, you have a few options. First, flying: You can grab a flight to Bar Harbor and hop right on the free Island Explorer shuttle into town — how easy is that? Alternatively, you can fly into Bangor and take a Downeast Transportation bus to Bar Harbor.
If you’re traveling from elsewhere in New England, you don’t necessarily need to travel by plane — there are buses and trains that can get you to the island. You can catch a Concord Coach to Bangor from Portland or Boston, then take Downeast Transportation south to Bar Harbor.
If you happen to be traveling from the Great White North, you might want to look into taking The Cat, a 3.5-hour ferry from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia to Bar Harbor. Just don’t forget your passport!
Acadia National Park has more information about public transit on its website.
Getting Around
Once we arrived in Bar Harbor — and cleared things up with that park ranger! — Ian and I had no problem finding our way around town and into the national park.
If you’re looking to rent a bike for your time on the island, you’ll have no shortage of great options. I would recommend checking out Bar Harbor Bicycle Shop, which seemed to have a good variety of hybrid bikes for people of all ages and sizes. Ian and I had our own bikes and so didn’t rent here — but we did venture into the shop to buy a spare tube and ask a few questions, and the staff were very helpful.
If you’ve made it to the bike shop, you’re halfway to the most convenient bike entrance to Acadia National Park: Duck Brook Bridge, in the park’s northeastern corner, is just 1.5 miles away. But that’s far from the only convenient bike entrance: Several carriage roads begin on Park Loop Road, a stone’s throw south of downtown. And if you’d like to venture farther afield within the park, it’s easy to grab the aforementioned Island Explorer shuttle, whose nine Mt. Desert Island routes all begin at the Bar Harbor Village Green. Every shuttle boasts a bike rack, and some can carry up to six bikes at once.
Before you head to Acadia on your bike, make sure to stop by a park visitor center and pick up an official carriage road map. They’re hard to find on the internet, and Google Maps won’t suffice as a substitute.
The town of Bar Harbor is so compact that it’s easy and quick to get anywhere on two feet or two wheels — and I recommend you choose the former, because the scenery is so spectacular that you’ll want to take it all in at a leisurely pace. Don’t miss the adorable shops and eateries on Main Street, the picture-perfect Agamont Park, and the short but sweet Shore Path. Two more walking destinations are still on my bucket list: the College of the Atlantic campus and Bar Island via the low-tide land bridge.
Our Acadia National Park bike route
Since Ian and I were only on Mt. Desert Island for one day, we decided to forego hiking and focus exclusively on cycling. (Someday, I need to return to explore the Bubbles and the Ocean Path!) On the one hand, we probably missed out on the most epic views the park has to offer, because we weren’t able to maneuver up steep trails and stairs. On the other, we missed the crowds that tend to gather on Acadia’s most famous trails, like the Beehive and Cadillac North Ridge, and we had some very nice vistas entirely to ourselves.
From Duck Brook Bridge, Ian and I headed south through a few miles of swampland before hitting Eagle Lake, the site of many popular trailheads. Here we passed biking families, pods of touring cyclists clad in spandex, and several groups of hikers.
We skirted the west side of the lake, then headed farther west to travel along Jordan Pond. There were plenty of water-view rest stops along the way, and we took full advantage.
At the base of Jordan Pond, we encountered more crowds than we’d seen all day — turns out this is a major parking area and convergence point for many trails and sights, plus a dining area and a visitor center. We spent a few minutes wandering around the historic buildings, replenishing our water supply and venturing down the lakeside nature trail.
At this (literal) crossroads, we decided to take a risk and venture off the beaten path a bit. A spiral-shaped carriage road on the park map caught our eye, so we headed southeast toward it. Little did we know the path actually wound its way up a massive (by bike standards) mountain!
Any illusions I might have harbored about my fitness levels were immediately dashed. Let me tell you, I huffed and puffed and complained like a toddler as we climbed up the extremely steep Day Mountain. Luckily for Ian, my complaints were short-lived; once I saw the uninterrupted ocean views, I grew determined to pedal harder and climb higher.
The view at the top was spectacular. Even more stunning: No one else was there.
Having just expended a ton of energy, Ian and I decided it was time to turn back. This time we stayed east, skirting the side of Bubble Pond and getting an eastern view of Eagle Lake.
Overall, Ian and I estimated we had biked about 20 miles by the end of the day. As the afternoon gave way to dusk, we rewarded ourselves with an ice cream cone from Ben & Bill’s Chocolate Emporium, took a short walk along the water, and layered up in anticipation of cool winds on the ferry ride back to Winter Harbor.
I couldn’t have been happier with our decision to go car-free for a day on Mount Desert Island. I hope I’ve inspired you to consider doing the same someday!
