---

Our Impressions of Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park

Our impressions of Bar Harbor, Mt. Desert Island and Acadia National Park are based on living less than an hour away for more than 40 years. Now that we are traveling and returning to Maine every other year, we see this area in a whole different light. We so much took Acadia National Park for granted. When it is in your backyard, and you have visited it hundreds of times, it is easy to take it for granted. This year when we returned, it seemed different to us. During the last year we have visited many national parks including Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Grand Canyon, Zion and Theodore Roosevelt. We may be prejudice, or maybe it because we have grown up around Acadia and are attracted to water, but none really compare to Acadia.

Not much has changed over the years in Acadia or Bar Harbor, except everything is ridiculously busier and the stores and restaurants are overwhelming more crowded. However, quaint Bar Harbor still has Ben and Bill’s lobster ice cream and a harbor walk in front of the big mansions. Acadia still has Sand Beach with its soft sand to walk on, Jordan Pond House is still selling popovers on the lawn, Thunder Hole is still the home of crashing waves, and Cadillac Mountain is still the highest point on the US east coast (1,569 ft.) and is still the first place on the Harbor Walk
eastern seaboard to see the sun rise.

Bar Harbor Area Attractions

You do not come to this area for fast paced, noisy attractions. You come to experience the quintessential Maine coast at its finest.

Acadia National Park is a 47,000-acre Atlantic coast recreation area primarily on Maine’s Mount Desert Island. Its landscape is marked by woodland, rocky beaches and glacier-scoured granite peaks. The national park boundaries encompass an area of 76.7 square miles and accounts for about half of the total island territory.

Acadia is special. It was the first national park declared east of the Mississippi River and the only national park in the northeastern part of the country.

If you go to the park:

• Stop by the Jordan Pond House for popovers. You will need to make reservations.
• Go to the top of Cadillac Mountain. You will need to make reservations.
• Experience Thunder Hole, where water crashing into a rock crevasse sounds just like thunder! The best time to go is just before high tide. Spray from Thunder Hole have reached over 40 feet in height! Parking is on the side of Park Loop Road.
• Sand Beach is one of our favorite beaches in the country. It has very soft sand and is very picturesque. This can be one of the busiest places in Acadia. Parking is SEVERELY limited, first come, first served.
• Park Loop Road will give you some of the most beautiful scenery you will ever see!

Acadian Natures Cruises (Bar Harbor) has multiple options for exploring the waters around Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. We went on the puffins and wildlife cruise. It was an amazing, smooth boat ride.

Bar Harbor (town) While the town is wonderful quintessential Maine town with many small local retail shops and restaurants. NOTHING annoys me more than paying for parking. Great job (written with dripping sarcasm) at ruining an experience by having to think about when my parking is about to expire. Stupid, stupid decision Bar Harbor. It never used to be this way!

If you are in downtown Bar Harbor, be sure to go on Bar Island. It is off Bridge Street and leads out to one of the many local islands. At low tide, you can walk and even drive a car out to the island. Be aware!! When the tide comes in the sand bar is completely covered. You will need to wait for the tide to go down again to cross back to the mainland.

Local Towns on the Island
If you are in the Bar Harbor / Acadia area, spending some time walking around these smaller communities is well worth your effort. Nothing says Maine than these places:

• Northeast Harbor (town) and Somes Sound
• Seal Cove (community)
• Southwest Harbor (town)

Food and Drink

Ben and Bills’s Chocolate Emporium (Bar Harbor) has fudge, chocolates and ice cream. Try lobster ice cream for something different! Sweet cream ice cream with pieces of real lobster meant. Think sweet meets savory.

Jordan Pond House in Acadia National Park (reservations required for the popovers, plan months in advance). If you stop in for the popovers or to check out Jordan Pond, be sure to leave plenty of time to find parking, it is SEVERELY limited.

Nor’Easter Pound and Market (Northeast Harbor) is owned by a lobster fisherman. Bella, our waitress was very knowledgeable about the origin of the three local oyster choices and about the difference between hard- and soft-shell lobsters (I knew already, but she was very good at explaining the difference!)

Stewman’s (Bar Harbor) is a tradition for us. Indoor and outdoor seating. Good, plentiful, flavorful food, always attentive waitstaff. And a view of water you cannot beat.

Trenton Lobster Pound (Trenton) is another tradition. If you want a boiled lobster on the coast of Maine, this is the one place to go. I have been coming here annually for lobster for at least 40 years. Same owners, now multi-generation, but Dad still is behind the counter taking your lobster order.

Home Base: The Campground

For us, a campground is not our destination. Our RV is self-contained. Except for water, electric and sewer rarely do we use campground services or amenities. We are explorers, not campground reviewers!

We stayed on site 155 at Mt. Desert Narrows in Bar Harbor. The park is clean and well-maintained. The staff was very friendly. Simple check in. Our pull through site was a FHU (water-electric-sewer) on gravel. Most sites are unlevel due to the slope from the road down to the water. The width of the sites varies pretty significantly. Our site was very nice width wise, but those sites in front of us were very tight together. 30-and-50-amp service was available. Good Verizon cellphone coverage. We had an open sky for our satellite.

We have camped many times on Mt. Desert Island (Bar Harbor). We have also stayed at the KOA and Mt. Desert Narrows II. Mt. Desert Narrow II is the most convenient to everything we wanted to do. Our site was one of the widest and longest we have ever had while staying on the island. We would stay here again.

Fun Facts

• Bar Harbor was originally named Eden when it was incorporated in 1796, but was renamed in 1918 after the sandbar that connects Bar Harbor to Bar Island at low tide. The name became associated with wealth and the town is now a popular resort area.
• Bar Harbor is the birthplace of Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, who was born there on July 8, 1908.
• Bar Harbor is home to two leading research and technology organizations: the Jackson Laboratory, a biomedical research institution, and the MDI Biological Laboratory, a biomedical research institution and science education center.
• Bar Harbor is ranked as one of the 10 most popular summer destinations in the U.S.
• Mount Desert Island is the largest island off the coast of Maine. It is the sixth largest island in the contiguous United States.
• Each year, Bar Harbor visitors consume roughly 5,316,000 lobsters, all caught off the coast of Maine

	Bar Harbor
Population	5,535
Founded	1796
Elevation	505 ft.
Average Income	$76,899
Average Housing	$837,000
Average Age	49 Years

Websites:
www.Visitbarharbor.com

Summary

There is nothing quite like the salty smell of the cold Atlantic Ocean and the sound of the water crashing on the beaches and rocks. This is truly a special place.

Since beginning our full-time journey to discover the country, we have found something to appreciate in every city and town we have passed through. We hope you enjoy reading about them as much as we have enjoyed discovering them!

Your partners in travel,
Kathryn and Dave
RVing Nomads

It’s a lifestyle

Thank you so much for reading this blog. If you enjoyed the content, please check out my other blogs at:
https://rvingnomads.com/blog/
https://relationshipsrelearned.com/my-blog/

To be notified of future posts, please enter your email address and click on the Subscribe button.

If you haven’t checked out our Special Places & Recommendations page, please do so. If you are in these areas, you may find these places as enjoyable and rewarding as we did!

No person, business or attraction has paid us for an endorsement. AI has not been used to create any of the content in this blog or website. All of the photos in this blog and website were taken by Dave or Kathryn Harrington.