Overview
With amazing coastal views and 49,000 acres to explore, the Park offers an abundance of hiking, biking, and sightseeing options.
Guide Sections
Use Overview's guide sections to understand how this stop fits into the larger park plan.
Overview Details
Difficulty
Open
Distance
N/A
Estimated time
N/A
Region
Learn About the Park
Located mainly on Mount Desert Island and a portion of the Schoodic Peninsula near Bar Harbor, Acadia's dramatic landscape of mountains and valleys was created by glaciers that carved through a granite ridge during the last ice age. Somes Sound, a valley flooded as the glaciers retreated, is the closest thing to a Scandinavian-style fjord on the eastern seaboard. Explorer Samuel de Champlain named Mount Desert Island when he landed here in 1604. In the mid-19th century, the famed artists of the Hudson River School helped put the region on the tourism map by portraying its beauty in their works. Wealthy summer residents built vacation homes linked by carriage roads, which today serve as highly accessible hiking and biking paths throughout the Park. Hikers and autos alike can summit 1,528-foot Cadillac Mountain for dramatic views of the Maine coastline, an outing that's especially popular at sunrise. Established: February 26, 1919 Area: 49,000 acres Website: [www.nps.gov/acad](http://www.nps.gov/acad) [@AcadiaNPS](http://twitter.com/AcadiaNPS)