Customer Reviews

Hiking Acadia National Park (Regional Hiking Series)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an invaluable guidebook for hikers at Acadia National Park. Our family -- including children ages 12, 9 and 3 -- visited Acadia for four days this summer and used this book to select a variety of trails. The authors describe the grade, distance, degree of difficulty and sights of nearly 150 miles of trails. Following their advice, we went along the Wonderland Trail to an enormous tidal pool, and chose the most appropriate route for our group up 1,200-foot Penobscot Mountain; there are many trails to the top of the mountain, and the book helped us choose the right one for our skill and fitness level. The older two children and one parent also climbed the cliffs of the Beehive; it's rightly described as a strenuous trail, but if you're not afraid of heights, the view of the coast is spectacular and the taste of wild blueberries at the top makes it special. (This hike is listed as one of the authors' favorites.) We found the book extremely useful. The book would also be useful for more experienced hikers; the authors have been on all of the park's trails, in all kinds of conditions. And the book fits neatly in a backpack, for handy reference in case you need to check the maps while hiking. Highly recommended.

I found this book to be very helpful in planning my vacation in Acadia. I have 2 boys aged 5 and 13 and needed hikes that were doable for the youngest one. He turned out to be the best hiker of us all! This book gave me a good sense of what the trails would be like. We only did easy and moderate and one strenuous one (South Bubble Trail). You will need to buy a more detailed map (like from the AMC) but the trails are well marked. I liked the section on the authors' favorite hikes. We did most of our hikes from their recommends. Don't miss the Wonderland and Great Head trails if you go! Happy hiking.

The most important thing to know about these reviews is that they are of two completely different books, by the same authors. Most of the reviews (including this one) are of Kong and Ring's Hiking Acadia National Park, a 250-page guidebook with detailed descriptions of 94 hikes, ranging from easy to strenuous. Our family (me, my wife, and two daughters, 14 and 12) used this guide for 4 days in Acadia earlier this summer, and found it clear, accurate, and extremely helpful in choosing appropriate hikes. Everyone who has reviewed this book up to now has given it 4 or 5 stars. I do agree with the 4-star review that you should also get a trail map at the park; they sell a map that's more detailed and up-to-date on trail names than the small maps in the book.

However, several of the reviews are of Kong and Ring's Best Easy Day Hikes: Acadia National Park. This is a much shorter book (96 pages, only 21 hikes) and we didn't use it. It gets mixed reviews; some liked it, some hated it. See David Prager's review for a detailed, evenhanded summary of its pros and cons. Unfortunately, when you click on "Look inside" for this book, it takes you to the first book instead, so there's no way to look at this and decide if it's the best book for you. Amazon really messed up on this one.

This is a great guide to hiking Acadia. It is well thought out with useful information on the elevation, skill level and views. The maps that show the trailhead could be a little clearer, but I didn't struggle too much. I bought a few books on the park and this is the one that I relied on the most.

This book was very useful for planning hikes. Notice that I said hikes, not bike trips or kayaking or sightseeing or photography. I found the directions for the trailhead especially useful, since not all trails in Acadia start at a marked parking lot. The authors helpfully group the hikes by the various regions of Mt Desert Island and the hikes seem appropriately rated. You can use the individual elevation diagrams to gauge the difficulty yourself. I picked up this book over the AMC guide because this was specifically for hiking whereas the AMC guide covered hiking, biking, and kayaking.

That said, this book could definitely use a little updating. For one, did the publisher really save significant money by using only black and white pictures? Secondly, some of the trails have been renamed since the original printing. Thirdly, although each hike is accompanied by a highlighted map, I prefer the AMC approach with a full map included inside the book.

In summary, bring this book, but get another one to appreciate all of the other things around Acadia NP, Bar Harbor, and the other communities on Mt Desert Island.

Good book and the descriptions are accurate.
If you haven't been to Acadia, this is a good book to get.
Acadia National Park is very big and has a lot of different areas with many options, so this book really helps you make informed decisions.