Beech Mountain Trail, Southwest Harbor, and Bass Harbor Lighthouse: The Western Half of Acadia National Park

With our vacation home located at Harbor Ridge Resort in Southwest Harbor, we had easy access to the western half of Mount Desert Island. While not the main locale for touring Acadia National Park, this side of the island deserves its own accolades.

First off, while most of Acadia National Park is located on the eastern portion of the island, the western portion deserves some recognition as well. We decided to give Beech Mountain Trail a try on our 3rd day and we were not disappointed. This is a short simple hike the winds up Beech Mountain with ample sites for pretty vistas. The trail splits in two early on between a steeper but shorter path on the left fork and a more gradually inclined but slightly longer path on the right fork. Both paths were no more than 1 1/4 miles in total to the top. We chose the more gradually inclined path because we were looking for something more relaxing. Eventually as we gained a little bit of elevation the views began to reveal themselves and reward us for stopping by.

The trail continued until reaching a summit topped with a fire tower. The fire tower stairs can be climbed (it does get windy!) to the top, where this is a park ranger at times offering park information and stories. Overall the Beech Mountain offered a lot of great views for a small price in effort compared to other trails. We would recommend this trail if you’re a beginner hiker and exploring the western half of Acadia National Park.

The next good thing about western Mount Desert Island is Southwest Harbor itself. While not as large as Bar Harbor in the east if still offers an array of little shops and restaurants to visit. We treated ourselves to some lobster at Beal’s Lobster Pier on our first night which was both great tasting and dangerous, at least for Brad who almost choked and died on his lobster. Thank goodness for cough reflexes. He likes to think the lobster was so good he just tried to eat it all at once…and failed. On our second to last night we tried the Cafe Dry Dock Inn Restaurant, what seemed to be a more fancy restaurant attached to the inn of the same name. We expected the food to be good given the decor of the restaurant and we weren’t disappointed, Brad especially enjoyed his Maine crabcakes. Additionally, thanks to staying at Harbor Ridge Resort nearby, we received 10% off of our meal.

Lastly, one of the more popular locations located on the western half of the island is Bass Harbor Lighthouse. This lighthouse is so popular that it often comes up when internet searching for Acadia National Park highlights even though it is not located in the actual park itself. The lighthouse is located about 4-5 mile drive southwest past Southwest Harbor. Be prepared, because we can confirm that this lighthouse can be POPULAR, especially if you drive to it. We got stuck in traffic about 1/4 mile down the road from where a small parking lot located next to the lighthouse. The parking lot has only about 20 parking spots and these were already filled by the time we arrived 45 minutes prior to sunset. Apparently people wait for hours to snap golden hour pictures of this iconic lighthouse. We ultimately had to split up and leave somebody idling in the car while the other half went down to the lighthouse so as to not miss getting our pictures. Additionally, what you don’t see in all the pictures online is that the really good pictures are taken from an outcropping of rocks leading down to the shore that must be climbed over after walking down an easy set of stairs. When we were there, these rocks were littered with fellow tourists. Luckily we were there early enough to sneak ourselves into a nice position on one of the higher rocks. Below us were several amateur photographers set up with tripods who had been there for over an hour already! At some point the tide starting rising and waves started to crash into their legs, making them move. We waited about half an hour ourselves to snap some photos of the iconic lighthouse at sunset. The experience is definitely worth it and you’ll be around a bunch of other crazy photo-seeking tourists like yourself!