Our FIRST time at Acadia National Park: Cadillac Mountain, South Bubble, Popovers, & Beech Cliff!

One thing that we are loving about Acadia in our few hours here so far is that it combines our three favorite types of scenery. Mountains, lakes, and the ocean. It does not get much better than that. After spending a night backpacking on the Cutler Coast in down east Maine, we've headed a bit down the coast to explore our 41st U.S. National Park, Acadia. Acadia National Park is primarily located on Maine's Mount Desert Island on the Atlantic Coast and is the only U.S. National Park in the Northeast. It's home to lakes, mountains, unique and challenging hikes, and so much more. And to start off our time in the park, we're heading to Cadillac Mountain for sunrise. Cadillac Mountain is extremely popular for sunrise and you can drive up to it, but between late May and mid-October, you have to get a vehicle reservation in advance, which costs $6. We lucked out and got a permit two days before, which is when they released the majority of them. You have to be logged in and ready to go before 10 a.m. We refreshed the page two seconds before and we thankfully got one because otherwise you can hike to the top, but that didn't sound as fun at four in the morning. Cadillac Mountain is on the North Atlantic Seaboard at 1,530 feet and from early October to early March, it is the first place in the United States to see the sunrise. So today, we're going to be some of the first to see the sunrise. To be honest, I have no idea where we're sitting right now. Our plan was to kind of go down a trail to try to avoid it. It's the most visited national park in the U.S., so it gets very busy here, especially at sunrise time. So we were hoping to just come down somewhere, but it was so dark we couldn't see, so we have no idea where we are. You can't tell. It is really, really cold. We've got gloves, got hand warmers, full jackets on, hot coffee, a sleeping bag. Stay warm because we have a little bit over an hour until the sun rises. That was 1 a.m. this morning and freezing our butts off. It's not getting any warmer. You would think that the sun was coming up. You would feel the warmth of the sun very warm. Time to go warm up in the van. We've headed southwest of Cadillac Mountain to Jordan Pond to hike the South Bubble Trail. This hike is three miles with 543 feet of elevation gain, and the best part, dogs are allowed. Acadia National Park is one of the few national parks that's super dog friendly, so Kona gets to enjoy a bunch of it with us today. The Jordan Pond Trail was super flat and easy, but the Bubble Trail is very rocky and steep. This trail is a lot more intense than I thought it would be. It's really fun though. Once you get up the trickier part of the hike, you get this insane view of Jordan Pond and the Atlantic Ocean, and one thing that we are loving about Acadia in our few hours here so far is that it combines our three favorite types of scenery. Mountains, lakes, and the ocean. It does not get much better than that. We made it to the Bubble Rock, which marks the end of the trail for us, but you've got amazing views of Eagle Lake off in the distance, the fall foliage, the mountains, all the pretty colors. It is just gorgeous out here, and it is so cool to finally be here. That first challenging part that we had going up the trail was very hard to get down with Kona. We had to try a bunch of different things and let a bunch of people pass and carry her, and she did not like it. Otherwise, the hike's really dog friendly. It's just that last part that's super tough, and we weren't expecting that. One iconic thing to do here at Jordan Pond is to popovers and tea at the Jordan Pond House. Back in 1847, the first settlers set up a logging operation and mill at the south end of the pond, and towards the 19th century, the area became popular with summer vacationers, and the Jordan Pond House turned into a restaurant with the first popovers and tea being served here by Mr. and Mrs. Thomas and Nellie McIntyre around 1895. In 1928, John D. Rockefeller Jr. purchased the Jordan Pond House and donated it to the National Park Service in 1940. In 1979, the original building burned down, and the new building opened in 1982 and continues the tradition started over a hundred years ago. We got here a little bit before 11, right before they opened, and the wait is over an hour and a half, so either get here super early or expect a really long wait. It's time! Check out this view! So a popover is a light roll made out of an egg batter similar to Yorkshire pudding in England, and it has a high proportion of liquid in the batter which causes it to steam, which then causes it to puff up. These are so uniquely shaped and puffy. Wow. It's very moist and stretchy. Got a little pull, a little chew to it. Tastes like a very good bread. So each popover comes with strawberry jam and some butter. It's very airy in there. There's just lots of openings. Lots of cavities in here. I totally know what you mean by moist on the inside. It is kind of eggy on the inside. It's not dry at all. I don't know how to describe the texture, but the outside's crispy, the inside is very light, but also moist and eggy. I don't know. It's really good though. It's slightly undercooked on the inside, but in a good way. I don't know what to compare it to. It's unlike any bread I've ever had before. Don't forget the pinky up. For our final hike of the day, we're at Echo Lake, which is on the western side of Mount Desert Island, which is said to be the quieter side of the park. And we're hiking the Beach Cliffs to Canada Cliffs Trail, which similar to a lot of the hikes here to Acadia, it's not very long. It's only 1.8 miles, but unlike the hike we did earlier today, dogs are not allowed on this hike, and you'll see why soon. This hike might be short, but dang, it is pretty steep. One fun feature of this trail, and the reason it's not dog friendly, there is a ladder. Four. Oh, there's four? There are ladders. This is cool. Ah, it's tight right there. Okay, ladder number two. It's quite large. I don't know, 15, 16 bronze. It goes way up there. Don't look down. Yeah, that climb right there is definitely a good 20 feet. This is a good warm-up for tomorrow morning's hike. That's all we'll say about that. Slight teaser. There's not much foot room on these ones. We conquered the ladders. Get our first peeks of the view from the top. Nice. Oh man, this is sick. So, I lied earlier. This trail is only 1.8 miles if you turn around here and go down the Canada Cliffs Trail, but we hear that there's a loop trail, which is about 0.4 miles. It has even more views of Echo Lake and the surrounding area. So far, we have not seen a single person on this hike. We hear people off in the distance though, because there is another way to access this loop. So, if you want solitude, go up these ladders. They're super fun, and no one's here, so it gets a huge thumbs up in our book. Just when you think the views can't get any better, they get better. This place is ridiculous. The sun is starting to set. It's starting to get a little dark out here, so we're gonna book it down to the van. We're gonna go down the Canada Cliffs Trail, because we hear that one's a lot easier than going down the ladders trail. But man, what an amazing first day here. It's been a really long day, but we have just wanted to come here for so long, and we are so pumped to finally be here, and it is just blowing us away. It's totally exceeding all of our very high expectations. We do have one more day in the park though, and we're gonna start the day with a very challenging, and some would say scary hike. We'll see. I love it here. I love it here. It's a media. It's amazing Acadia. You can drive up to it, but my lips got stuck together, and I couldn't get my words out. Scrapeaches.