Acadia Scenic Drive, Maine: Park Loop Road

For more trip planning, see Maine Scenic Drives: Choose Coast, Lakes or Mountains.

How the Park Loop Road works

Two things about the road catch people out, and both are geometric rather than scenic.

First, the eastern section is one-way. From the Sieur de Monts area south past Sand Beach, Thunder Hole and Otter Cliff, traffic runs in one direction only. Miss a turnout and you do not double back. You go around again, and that is twenty minutes minimum. Know your stops before you set off.

Second, on the one-way section you may park in the right-hand lane where it is not signed otherwise. This is unusual and it is the release valve that keeps the road working when the lots are full. It also means the pullouts you want are frequently a wall of parked cars, and you should be scanning well ahead rather than braking hard.

The road is seasonal. Sections close in winter and reopen in spring, with dates driven by snow and maintenance rather than the calendar, so check current status on nps.gov before a shoulder-season trip. An entrance pass is required.

The drive, in order

Hulls Cove Visitor Center

Start here, north of Bar Harbor off Route 3. It rates 4.5 from 2,546 reviews, and its real value is not the exhibits but the ranger at the desk telling you what is closed, what is crowded and where the peregrines are nesting. The Park Loop Road begins at the exit. It closes for the winter season, at which point the Bar Harbor Chamber building in town becomes the place to ask.

Sieur de Monts

A short spur off the loop and the first stop most people skip. They should not. The Wild Gardens of Acadia (4.6 from 725 reviews) is a compact garden laid out by habitat (bog, heath, mountain, seaside) with everything labeled, which turns the rest of your week's hiking into something you can read. The Sieur de Monts Nature Center (4.5 from 239 reviews) and a spring house sit alongside it, and the level Jesup Path and Hemlock Path Loop (4.8 from 32 reviews) leaves from the same lot on boardwalk through birch. Twenty minutes minimum, an hour if you like plants.

Sand Beach

The one-way section starts and the ocean arrives. Sand Beach (4.8 from 970 reviews) is a crescent of shell-and-quartz sand between granite headlands, and it is the busiest pullout in the park. The lot fills by mid-morning through most of the summer. The water is cold enough that swimming is a stunt rather than a plan. Great Head (4.8 from 87 reviews) climbs from the far end of the beach onto the headland and gets you above the crowd in about fifteen minutes of walking.

Thunder Hole and Ocean Path

Thunder Hole (4.6 from 3,222 reviews) is a mile further and the most-photographed stop on the road. It is also the most commonly mistimed: the boom needs both a rising tide and real ocean swell, and thousands of people arrive to find a quiet crack in the rock. Read our guide to timing Thunder Hole before you plan around it.

The better move on this stretch is to leave the car. The Ocean Path Trailhead (4.8 from 484 reviews) runs level along the cliff edge from Sand Beach past Thunder Hole to Otter Point, roughly two miles one way, with the whole coastline in view the entire time. Drive it and you see four pullouts. Walk it and you see everything between them.

Otter Cliff and Otter Cove

Otter Cliff is a sheer granite face dropping straight into the Atlantic, and it is the postcard view of the eastern shore, better in early light than at midday. Just past it the road crosses the Historic Otter Cove Stone Bridge and Causeway (4.8 from 69 reviews), one of the road's own attractions: cut granite, built to look like it grew there. The mudflats on the inland side are worth a look at low tide.

Jordan Pond

The road turns inland and the character changes completely. The Jordan Pond Path Trailhead (4.8 from 569 reviews) circles a clear glacial pond with the two rounded Bubbles framing the far end. The single most recognizable inland view in Acadia. The full loop is about three and a half miles, half of it on plank walkway. Bubble Rock (4.8 from 378 reviews), a glacial erratic balanced absurdly on the edge of South Bubble, is a short steep climb from a lot just up the road.

The Jordan Pond House sits at the south end, and the lawn with tea and popovers is a genuine tradition rather than a marketing one. The parking situation is the worst in the park; arrive before mid-morning or take the shuttle.

Cadillac Summit Road

The 3.5-mile spur to the summit leaves from near the north end of the loop. Cadillac Mountain (4.9 from 1,528 reviews) is the highest point on the eastern seaboard of the United States, and the drive up is genuinely good. Switchbacks with Frenchman Bay opening up below. It requires a separate timed vehicle reservation in season, booked on recreation.gov and not included with your entrance pass. Our Cadillac Mountain guide covers how those release.

How long to allow

When to drive it

Before 8am or after 4pm in July and August, without exception. Midday on a clear summer day the one-way section becomes a slow procession of cars looking for space, and the experience collapses. Early morning also gives you low light on the east-facing cliffs, which is when this coastline actually looks like the photographs.

September and early October are the best weeks of the year: settled weather, thinning traffic, and foliage on the hills behind the shore. Winter closes sections of the road entirely. See our guide to Acadia in winter for what stays open.

If the lots defeat you, the fare-free Island Explorer shuttle runs the loop on a seasonal schedule from the Village Green in Bar Harbor (4.6 from 1,177 reviews). Riding one leg and walking another is the single best trick on this road.

Three other drives on the island

The Park Loop Road is not the only scenic drive on Mount Desert Island, and on a crowded day it is not the best one.

• Route 102 and 102A, the quiet side. Down the west lobe through Somesville and Southwest Harbor, then around past Seawall to Bass Harbor Head Light Station (4.4 from 4,616 reviews). Ship Harbor Trail (4.8 from 115 reviews) and Echo Lake Beach (4.7 from 193 reviews) are on the same run. Half the traffic, most of the coastline.
• Sargeant Drive along Somes Sound. A narrow shore road out of Northeast Harbor hugging the only fjard on the eastern seaboard, with cliffs rising straight from the water. No buses, no RVs, no pullouts to speak of, just the drive.
• The Schoodic Loop Road. On the mainland peninsula about an hour around Frenchman Bay, a one-way six-mile road along an open granite shore with almost nobody on it. If the island is at capacity, this is the answer.

Frequently asked questions

How long does the Park Loop Road take to drive?

About an hour with no stops, but that is not how anyone drives it. Allow two to three hours for the main pullouts, four to five if you walk the Ocean Path, and a full day if you add a hike and a meal at Jordan Pond. In peak summer, add time for parking. The lots at Sand Beach and Jordan Pond fill by mid-morning.

Is the Park Loop Road one way?

Partly. The eastern section from Sieur de Monts south past Sand Beach, Thunder Hole and Otter Cliff is one-way, and you cannot double back if you miss a turnout. The rest of the loop, including the Cadillac Summit Road and the western half, is two-way. On the one-way stretch you may park in the right-hand lane where signs do not prohibit it.

Do you need a reservation to drive the Park Loop Road?

No reservation is needed for the Park Loop Road itself, only a park entrance pass. A separate timed vehicle reservation is required to drive the Cadillac Summit Road during the busy season, booked through recreation.gov. Sunrise slots are the hardest to get. Current dates and requirements are posted on nps.gov.

Is the Park Loop Road open in winter?

Only in part. Most of the loop closes to vehicles for the winter season, including the Cadillac Summit Road, though a section near the Bar Harbor end typically stays open year-round and the closed portions are used for skiing, snowshoeing and walking. Reopening dates depend on snow and maintenance rather than a fixed calendar, so check nps.gov before a spring visit.