Acadia National Park

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.

This guide is a scaled-down version of the longer "Hiking Acadia National Park" by the same authors. Included in this guide are 21 day hikes within the national park boundaries, some of which follow along the coast while others go to the more accessible mountains. Each hike contains directions to the trailhead, an adequate though not particularly detailed map, and a brief but adequate description of the hike. Length ranges from 0.5 mile to 5.8 miles, with the average falling at around 2 miles. There are a couple of things you should know before purchasing this guide. The book is only 84 pages long and only measures 6" by 4". This small size makes the book easy to carry, but at a cost. Specifically, only hikes on Mount Desert Island are included in this guide, with the rest being left on the cutting room floor from the larger version. So, if you are only planning a few days vacation to Acadia (like I did), this book will probably fit the bill. If you want a more comprehensive guide to Acadia hiking, you will want to look elsewhere. Second, the term "easy" in the title is relative. True, there are no multi-day backpack journeys described here, and the handhold rock climbs do not appear in this guide, but not everyone in even decent health will be able to hike all of these trails. For example, as an experienced day-hiker with average conditioning, I could have hiked any trail in this guide. However, my 60-something mother would have struggled on many of these trails even though she has no major health problems. My point is simply that not all of these trails are easy strolls on a level path, and I think you should know that before buying this guide. You may still need to choose a trail for your ability, and given the guide's size, your choices are somewhat limited. In summary, I gave this guide a good rating because I felt that it accomplished what the authors intended, namely a compact guide designed for short-term park visitors. However, depending on what kind of trip you are planning, this guide may not be for you, as I described above. So I recommend that you decide what kind of Acadia visit you desire and then use this review and others to choose the guide that will help you the most.

For a party with kids, this book is just what we needed. The descriptions and difficulty ratings were right on. The directions to the trail heads were very clear (unlike in many hiking guides). Perhaps the best thing about it was the size. The book fit easily into my back pocket. No taking off my backpack everytime I wanted to check the map!

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.

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.