[Acadia National Park, Sep 22, 2024]

There were three hikes at the top of my much longer Acadia wish list: the Beehive, the Precipice, and the Bubbles loop. Two of these, the Beehive and the Precipice, involved climbing on iron rungs on vertical rocks of Acadia granite with plenty of height exposure. The Precipice was harder, so I figured I’d start with the Beehive. I also wanted to check off some of the other granite summits in Acadia. The Beehive, Gorham Mountain and Ocean Path Loop fit the bill. This 3.5-mile hike would also allow us to check out some of the sights along the scenic park loop road that we didn’t have time for yesterday.

It was not long until we got to first steeper section. It started off with “regular” rock climbing first.

And then it was time for the iron rungs! There were additional rungs to pull yourself up with in the steepest parts. It was actually not too hard and the sections were short. Being comfortable with heights was more important than being in great physical shape. Families with kids under 10 were doing the hike! Even though I had mentioned this to Ash, he didn’t quite expect the level of adventure this trail required. As he was making his way up a set of iron rungs, I heard him say “What did I sign up for?”

This section took us probably 20 minutes to complete. It’s less than a mile to the top of the Beehive. We were happy to be done with the hardest part of this hike so soon!

From there it was a fairly easy hike to Gorham Mountain. We passed a lake called the Bowl, which was surrounded by the most vibrant specks of fall color we had yet to see.

From there, it was time to descend down to the ocean path. We took some photos along the cliffs and stumbled upon another wedding!

As we continued along the ocean path, we stumbled upon the Thunderhole. The narrow inlet along the rocky eastern shore is known for the thunderous reverberation the incoming tide or strong storm waves can cause. There is a high ocean spray, too! We got to it 3 hours before high tide, and the recommended viewing window is 90 minutes to 2 hours before. This gave us time to get back our hike back to our car, which was at Sand Beach, and drive over.

We spent about half an hour at the Thunderhole, and we were about to give up when I finally caught a pretty good spray on video!

It was time to leave the park and grab some lunch! The Thirsty Whale in downtown Bar Harbor had delicious blueberry beer, and the fried seafood sampler was also tasty. We enjoyed all this on the awesome back patio, which was outfitted with heaters. We also stopped by Hannaford market for some snacks, as we decided to skip dinner and spend the rest of the day in our hotel. The pool and hot tub were much needed after all that climbing!