For our second and last day in Acadia National Park, Mark & I wanted a quick and easy hike that wouldn’t take us all day & that our exhausted pup would be able to handle. I had wanted to do the South Bubble Trail to see the infamous Bubble Rock, but through some research learned that there was also a North Bubble Trail that was only about 20 minutes.
I didn’t really have any crazy expectations for these hikes (how great of a view can you get with a 20 minute hike?) but I was happy to spend some more time outside.
We technically did South Bubble second because Mark wanted to end with seeing Bubble Rock, but you’ll learn in a bit why I’m choosing to write about it first.
Prior to our hike I had read a review that said South was a little harder than North. I am here to tell you that if you ever come across that article STOP READING because it is 100% wrong! South Bubble was shockingly easy with some easy stairs throughout made of either wood or rock, depending on where along the trail you were. It was easy to follow & pretty heavily trafficked.
If you’re like me and enjoy taking pictures of the summit markers then don’t follow signs for the rock right away! Instead of going left, where the signs direct you, go to the right and you’ll see a little incline. Around the corner you’ll find the weirdly well-hidden summit marker. You. Are. Welcome.
The view from the summit marker isn’t that great though, so Mark & I went back towards the Bubble Rock to find a place to camp out for lunch & summit beers while we waited for the area to clear out a bit. The views were nice, but honestly nothing spectacular.
Once the bulk of the tourists cleared out, we climbed down to the Bubble Rock. It was actually really cool seeing it perched right on the ledge! What wasn’t cool was the family of 5 that took, no joke, 25 freakin’ minutes taking pictures trying to push it down. And that was just from when we got there, I have no idea how long they were down there to begin with!!! Please, do the world a favor, have some respect for the other visitors & just take your pictures
This rock was actually really mind opening for me and made me grateful for the beautiful world that we live in, but also terrified for what the world will be like for my future kids and grandkids. If you’d like to read more about that, check out my post from August 27!
Now onto North Bubble…
Maybe it was the 20 minute hike…
Maybe it was because there wasn’t much to see on our way up…
Maybe it was because we only saw about four other people on the trail…
I did not have any high hopes for North Bubble, I just thought it would be nice to be outside…
But it surpassed all of my wildest expectations and was hands down the best hike of our trip! It was definitely harder than South, with plenty of boulder scrambles and steep moments of sheer, kind of slippery granite, but the views from the top were absolutely breathtaking! Don’t get me wrong, all of the other views we saw were also breathtaking, but this particular summit was also the most peaceful and serene that we had experienced.
I think this will definitely be a staple hike for us any time we head back to Acadia.
(As will the amazing BBQ we had right after!)
What has your favorite experience been in a National Park? I want to hear all about it!