Hiking in Acadia

There’s a part of Acadia National Park that’s on a small island called Isle Au Haut (locals pronounce it “aisle a ho”). A little more than half the island is park land and the other part is privately owned. The only way to get to Isle Au Haut is via the mail boat—a small passenger-only ferry that transports residents, tourists, and the literal mail to and from the island.

We went hiking on Isle Au Haut on the first day of our September vacation. There are several hikes in the Acadia section of the island but, unless you’ve made camping reservations (reservations open in April and sell out pretty quickly), you gotta be back to catch the last mail boat back at 4:30 or else you’re stuck.

We’d initially planned to do a couple of trails that form a loop but the first of them proved to be a bit more challenging than we expected.

It was gorgeous, though. Great start to our vacation.