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Distant Regions of Acadia
Tour Acadia Less Traveled - Schoodic Peninsula and More
When you tour Acadia, be sure to include the distant regions of Acadia at least once. You'll understand why when you see the Schoodic Peninsula up close.
It's kind of odd, but Acadia National Park is not confined to Mount Desert Island. It extends offshore into Frenchman Bay, on Isle au Haut and other islands. It also extends – with a 50 mile break – onto a neighboring peninsula called the Schoodic Peninsula.
It's wonderful that our forefathers set aside so many wild places to be forever preserved as our national park, but it's also rather unique that the whole park is not contiguous.
If your visit to Acadia is brief, 5 days or less, you may not want to take the time to visit these more distant regions of Acadia. I guess it just depends on how you want to spend your time and what your goals are in being at Acadia National Park.
What I mean is, we love to hike. So our visits to Acadia always had to be filled with lots of hiking. That meant that we didn't always want to devote a lot of travel time to getting to places. But you might have different ideas or preferences, and that's fine. Acadia offers those kinds of choices.
Getting to the Distant Regions
To get to Isle au Haut, Baker Island and Little Cranberry Island, all of which have fragments of Acadia on them, you have to take a mailboat or a tour boat.
The Isle au Haut mailboat leaves from Stonington, Maine, at the tip of Deer Isle, about 40 miles south of Mount Desert Island. The voyage is only about 45 minutes, but allow at least 2 hours to get to the harbor where you'll catch the boat, and to find parking. (And bear in mind that getting on is first come-first served.) During the summer, the mailboat makes several stops on the island; take the Duck Harbor stop to get to the national park area.
Boats to Little Cranberry Island, home of the Isleford Museum, can be caught at both Northeast Harbor and Southwest Harbor on Somes Sound on the western half of Mount Desert Island. The voyage is only about 20 minutes.
Baker Island is at the mouth of Frenchman Bay and houses a 43-foot high brick lighthouse. Tourboats from Northeast Harbor go there in season.
To get to the Schoodic Peninsula, you'll need to drive or take a ferry from Bar Harbor across the Bay. It's only 4 miles as the crow flies on the ferry, but to drive, you have to travel all the way around the northern end of Frenchman Bay, which is 45 to 50 miles.
To drive, exit Mount Desert Island, going back to Ellsworth on Route 3 to US 1, heading east to West Gouldsboro. From there, go south on Route 186 to Winter Harbor and look for the park entrance signs.
The Schoodic Peninsula is a bit of an offbeat, nearly forgotten area of Acadia. Or, at the very least, it's not as popular. While Acadia proper may seem rather crowded at times during the summer, the Schoodic rarely does. And, in fact, only about 10% of Acadia's visitors go there.
It's definitely worth the drive if you have the time. Not only will you find a 6-mile one way road section of the Acadia National Park here, there are also 5 charming town waiting to be explored:
Winter Harbor
Gouldsboro
Sullivan
Sorrento
Franklin
Though we didn't find them quite as entrancing as the towns on Mount Desert Island, they were fun to see and explore a bit. But the biggest attraction, is obviously the park area.
Towering 440-foot high granite cliffs provide magnificent views of Frenchman Bay at Schoodic Head. Thundering surfs outshine anything you might have seen at Thunder Rock on Mt. Desert Island!
Take time to explore the park loop road that travels through the national park section of the Schoodic area. You'll find lonely rock beaches with tidal pools, picturesque private docks, hiking trails, and the Frazer Point picnic area. It's truly lovely there. Oh yeah... and you'll find lots of (rather aggressive) seagulls!
Exploring the distant regions of Acadia is definitely worth it if you have the time. Any tour of Acadia can be deemed more complete by going there. This concludes your Acadia auto tour.
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To get to Isle au Haut, Baker Island and Little Cranberry Island, all of which have fragments of Acadia on them, you have to take a mailboat or a tour boat. 
The Schoodic Peninsula is a bit of an offbeat, nearly forgotten area of Acadia. Or, at the very least, it's not as popular. While Acadia proper may seem rather crowded at times during the summer, the Schoodic rarely does. And, in fact, only about 10% of Acadia's visitors go there.
Towering 440-foot high granite cliffs provide magnificent views of Frenchman Bay at Schoodic Head. Thundering surfs outshine anything you might have seen at Thunder Rock on Mt. Desert Island!
