AN ANNIVERSARY TRIP TO ACADIA NATIONAL PARK

We wrapped up our 2024 travel with this autumn trip to Acadia. It was exciting not only to visit a new-to-us state but also to at last make it to New England — and to mark our 14th anniversary by reaching the No. 40 milestone on our National Parks tally.

From experiencing a quaint costal town to admiring fall foliage along the Atlantic to starting our final morning in Maine on the mountain summit that’s the first place in the U.S. to see sunrise, this trip was quick but still full of memorable firsts.

– motion pictures –

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day 1 • 10.12.24

Making it to Maine

After catching a connecting flight in Chicago, we were on our way to our destination. It worked out that Seth’s sister and her husband were at the tail end of a trip to the area just as we arrived, and we were able to meet for a lobster dinner — which seemed like a pretty appropriate first meal in Maine.

day 2 • 10.13.24

Acadia awaits

We started this day in downtown Bar Harbor, where I managed to accrue four souvenirs in the hour-and-a-half window it took for a table to open up at the restaurant where we had a late breakfast. Afterward, it was time for the main event: Acadia National Park! We took the park shuttle to Jordan Pond and were able to hike the path around it before the last bus of the evening arrived to return us to our rental car.

day 3 • 10.14.24

Autumn color along the coast

This day featured what I’ve decided has to be one of my favorite hikes of all time, along Acadia’s Ocean Path. Even in the rain, it was wonderful to spend several hours walking the rugged coastline and seeing the autumn colors beside the crashing waves. The hike ended at the appropriately named Sand Beach, the only sandy beach in the park. We caught a shuttle back to downtown Bar Harbor from there, opting for an early dinner since we’d be rising before the sun the next day.

day 4 • 10.15.24

A mountaintop moment and more

We were so surprised we actually were able to snag a reservation to see the sun rise this morning from the summit of Cadillac Mountain, the highest peak in Acadia. We hadn’t had any luck getting a pass for either of the first two days of our trip, but the third time was the charm — and undoubtedly the best day for it, since the sky had cleared enough for us to have a dramatic show.

We followed that experience with our “official” anniversary portraits, since golden hour on top of a mountain is a pretty unbeatable setting. The cold and wind did present a challenge, though, and sent Seth lunging for our photography equipment at one point, when the tripod seemed in danger of tipping. Thankfully, he reached it before it fell — and the camera happened to capture his superhero stride in a shot that’s probably the most impressive portrait from that quick little session! 

It worked out well that we got such an early start, because as of this day, Acadia’s shuttles had stopped running for the season. This meant parking was likely to be a problem, but we were able to beat the crowd to our next destinations — the historic Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse and then the Wonderland Trail, which took us to tide pools and one last ocean view.

After a final meal in Bar Harbor, we thought seeing the sun set behind our hotel was an appropriate bookend for a big day. And it would have been, had the fire alarm not gone off at 10:30 p.m. and provided another notable finale (sans an actual fire, fortunately).

day 5 • 10.16.24

Heading home

We drove the three hours back to the Portland airport, surrounded by fall foliage at its peak. The first leg of our flight home took us to Baltimore, which we found to have the best restaurant selection of any airport we’d experienced. So we didn’t mind the long layover there that had us arriving back in Kansas City right around sunset, with pretty views from the plane window to end this last adventure of the year.