Acadia Auto Tour (cont'd):
The Blackwoods Section

The next phase of your Acadia auto tour is the Blackwoods section of Acadia... let's continue your self-guided tour...

Shortly past Otter Cove, you'll start to turn away from the road and will enter the Blackwoods section of the Acadia autotape tour. It's called this because of the old-growth forest you find here. The trees along the coastal sections of Acadia are newer growth, due to the disastrous 1947 Bar Harbor Fire that destroyed a good portion of the island.

Though I do love the rocky coasts in Acadia, I think the Blackwoods are some of the most beautiful country you'll find on the island. Off to the right of the road is the Blackwoods Campground, but you have to get to it from Route 3.

13. Wildwood Stables

The first "high point" you'll come across during this part of the Acadia auto tour is Wildwood Stables, home to Acadia's carriage horses. There is a lovely gatehouse there. You can also sign up for a one or two hour carriage tour along one of the scenic carriage roads there, if you like.

Or, if you have your own horses, you can arrange to stable them there on a short-term basis. You can't rent horses there, though, unfortunately. For more information, visit their website.

14. Jordan Pond House

This is one of our favorite stops on the Acadia auto tour, and it's not far past the the stables. Enter and cycle around the oval entrance drive to get to the parking lot. If there are not spots there, you can continue past the Jordan Pond House to the auxiliary parking lot. (It feels like you drive a ways, but in reality, you're right behind the Pond House.)

There are a few things to see here at this Acadia auto tour stop:

• The Jordan Pond House. This is a combination restaurant/gift shop, and it has a long, hallowed tradition at Acadia. The original building—a rustic tea house—was destroyed by fire in 1979. But the new building is lovely and still conjures up days of old, when early Bar Harbor resort fans would have tea and popovers on the lawn. In fact, you can still do so!

• Jordan Pond. This striking body of water, arguably the most beautiful in Acadia National Park, is 150 feet deep, what most of us would consider a lake, but it is called a pond here. You can hike around it on the Jordan Pond Trail, take a short detour on the Nature Trail, or just linger on its small beach. You can even canoe or kayak on its waters, if you like.

• Carriage Roads. You have easy access to Acadia's carriage roads system from this stop, and you'll see tons of tired, thirsty, and hungry bikers here because of it. If you'd like, you can take a few minutes to check out the carriage roads in the area.

• Hiking Trailheads. Jordan Pond is a jumping off point for many surrounding trails, including Deerbrook, Jordan Stream, and quite a few others. If you're going to be gone most of the day hiking, do park in the auxiliary lot. It's closer to most of the trailheads, and that way you're not clogging up the main lot.

15. Bubble Rock

Next up on the Acadia auto tour is Bubble Rock, hanging high above the left side of the road. There's a pull off area on the road that gives you a great view of the rock, in all it's hanging glory.

To get a close-up view of Bubble Rock, you'll want to take the South Bubble Hiking Loop, but for now, it's enough to know that this gigantic boulder was left perching precariously on the cliffs of South Bubble Mountain millions of years ago by a receding glacier. It hasn't moved since!

If you look close at this spot, you might also see some Acadia rock climbers scaling the face of South Bubble beneath Bubble Rock.

16. Bubble Pond

Shortly past the Rock, you'll come to the beautiful little gem of a pond called Bubble Pond... This pond is a lot smaller than Jordan Pond, and more pond-like. It has lovely, sparkling blue waters, and most of its shoreline is soft sand,interspersed with smooth rock.

You can't walk around the whole pond, but do get out of the car and go down to the small beach. Feel its cold waters and admire the sun sparkling in its depths.

At Bubble Pond, you can also see one of the more well-known carriage bridges. It just kind of sits there on a grassy meadow. You'll also see a lot of bikers here, because the carriage road runs right past the pond, crossing the Park Loop Road close to the Bubble Pond parking lot.

Another high point here is the small creek and waterfall you can see right from the parking lot.

17. Cadillac Mountain

Once you leave Bubble Pond, you'll drive for a bit, then the next step on the Acadia auto tour starts when you see the road up to Cadillac Mountain, which you should turn on to.

Cadillac Mountain is 1532' at its summit... It's the highest point on the east coast of the US. The drive up takes a while, and you'll be treated to some great views of the ocean, Eagle Lake and the surrounding mountains and forests.

At the top, there is a 1/3 mile long paved trail, with a number of educational signboards about park history and geology. At one point in time, a cog railroad climbed up the mountain from Eagle Lake to a luxury hotel. Neither still exists, but there is a great little gift shop at the summit on the site of the former hotel.

Be sure you have a coat at the top of Cadillac Mountain, as it is invariably windy. The temperatures often feel about 10 to 20 degrees colder at the top than they do in the lower elevations of the park!

Several trails climb up the different sides of Cadillac, including the South Ridge Trail, the North Ridge, Canyon Brook, West Face, and the Gorge Path. We've done them all, and they're all fun, but that's an activity for another day!

Once you're done at Cadillac, you've pretty much concluded the main part of the Acadia auto tour. There is still another half of the island to see, but we usually do it on a separate day, when we're fresh.

Continue Acadia auto tour on the western side of the island... →

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