After tackling the Big Kahuna at Acadia National Park (click here for our climb up the Precipice Trail), Hannah and I wake at the way cool Bar Harbor Motel with our Acadia overnight winding down. Just after dawn, we walk to the end of the motel property where we have a 0.2 mile trail leading into the park itself.
Taking a seemingly abandoned road for a half mile to the right, we soon are hiking on the smooth gravel of the Carriage Road towards Witch Hole Pond. It’s a delightful hour of solitude with my solitude partner of choice, Hannah Banana.

On the Carriage Road early Wednesday morning
Later, after feasting on the sumptuous breakfast at the Bar Harbor Motel of coffee, fruit, blueberry muffins, cold cereals, and bagels with garlic-laced cream cheese, we drive to Jordan Pond for a morning of circumnavigating this freshwater pond.
Probably the most popular trail in the park because of its levelness and access to major trailhead parking, the Jordan Pond loop (roughly three miles) is made for our grandsons, Owen (7) and Max (5). Starting down the lawn from the Jordan Pond House, we have a mile and a half of gravelly trail within an arm’s length of the pond.

Trail o’ gravel on the east side of Jordan Pond

Looking back towards the trailhead
At the far end, we return for the trailhead along the forested waterfront. Soon we are hiking through a series of boulders with orange markings, which turn out to be worn away parts of the granite from the footsteps of previous hikers. This small-time bouldering adds character and rolling definition to the trail.

Notice the natural trail markings of orange
Once successfully navigated, the boulders give way to puncheons (planks that are an effective way to cross the low lying areas around the pond). Volunteers have built these wooden trails with widened places for hikers to step aside while others pass. Views of the pond soothe the smart phone-weary soul.
Once back at the trailhead, we believe that this is a trail for hikers and non-hikers among our family and friends looking for an active way to spend a morning in Paradise (and by that I mean Acadia National Park).

Jordan Pond from the trailhead