Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor, Maine, Part II

After breakfast the next morning at Jordan's, we headed to the Gorham Mountain Trail to do our first real hike of the trip. We got here early since we were already up and it can get really crowded throughout the day with limited parking. This hike was described as being great for families with young children, as well as offering the best views of any moderate hike in the park.

Before we even left the parking lot J fell and cut her knee on a rock. Not a good start! Of course we had no bandaids (note for next time!) so we improvised and used a tissue with our luggage tag attached to it. She wasn't too happy, but luckily we ran into someone who had an extra bandaid for us.

We loved this hike... J is very much into climbing rocks and it keeps her entertained the entire time. This hike provided that and it was fun for all! M loved riding in the hiking harness and J felt like a badass climbing. The hike was 1.8 miles roundtrip and 525 feet to the summit.

Instead of turning around and going back to the car we decided to go down the other way and end up a little down the Park Loop Road where we could then walk along the water and see things such as Sand Beach (which we saw from above) and Thunder Hole.  Thunder Hole gets its name from the supposedly loud booming sound it makes when the waves crash into it at just the right spot. 

After walking for quite a bit we started to lose J so we decided not to go down to Sand Beach and only visit Thunder Hole for a few minutes since we were already passing it (which was fine because it was crowded at that point and apparently most of the time there is no loud boom from the waves, more like sloshing). After hiking and walking a total of 3.2 miles, we were all done! We went back to the house for some lunch and much deserved rest time.

Later on we went into Bar Harbor and had some lobster dinner and much needed drinks for the adults!