Along the Great Head Trail

One of our favorite trails to hike at Acadia National Park is the Great Head Trail. This trail is a beautiful and brisk jaunt along the easternmost edge of the island and offers breathtaking vistas of the water as well as an old ruin. There are two ways to get to the trailhead. You can either park at Sand Beach and pick up the trail at the eastern edge of the beach or you can do what we always do, which is to enter the back way.

If you go, take the Park Loop Road and make a left immediately before the park entrance, where the toll booths are located. Then make your first right and head to the parking lot on the left. Hike up to the trailhead, where you will come to the sign you see below and go left.




I brought the little camcorder with us on this hike and this is one of the first views you will be rewarded with.

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When it’s bright outside, you can’t see a thing in the viewfinder, so I had no idea what I was filming and how straight I was holding the little camera.

The hike is under 2 miles so it really doesn’t take very long. A little further up the trail, you will come to a crossroad. It doesn’t matter which way you go because it’s a loop. We did something different this time and headed up the rocks you see below, which is probably what contributed to the screaming of my knees that night.

It was a painful night.




If you look closely, you’ll see George and my husband. You might also see trail markers of blue painted at intervals on the rock.




At the top, you have a great view of The Beehive. My husband has goaded me for years to climb The Beehive with him, but I have steadfastly refused. I refused because I know my limitations. And I refuse to succumb to peer pressure.

Besides, I know several people who have hiked this trail, and each has told me it was really hairy.




You soon come to Sand Beach and the panoramic beauty of it all.




We took a little break on the cliff that overlooks the beach. George loves this trail.

Interesting fact: Part of the 1999 movie, Cider House Rules was filmed at Sand Beach.




Now the trail heads east a bit more, hugging the perimeter. That’s when you come to the one little dicey bit.

Well, for me, it’s dicey because of my *&(^$%** knees. My husband and the dog clambered right up it like they were kids. Which one of them is.

I took a short video before I started up.

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It’s really not all that bad. And if you don’t have bad knees, it’s rather fun.




And there’s a wonderful ring to help pull you up that I’m sure my husband didn’t even need.

I used it, though.

At the top, we always take another break to enjoy the scenery. In the center of the photo above, you can see my husband and the dog. But just behind him lies a jumble of stone.




This is all that is left of the tower built by JP Morgan for his daughter, Louisa Saterlee. Given to her, along with Sand Beach as a wedding gift, the tower had a tea room, a salon, and an observatory.

It was lost in the Fire of 1947 which destroyed over 17,000 acres on Mount Desert Island and left the town of Bar Harbor in ruin.




You can still see the stone floor of the tower. It’s in such a magnificent location. All of the land that was owned by the Saterlees was donated to the park.




And then we follow the blue trail markers back down. I highly recommend this trail if you are ever to visit this magnificent park.

Next up ~ the best lobstah roll on the island.