Cadillac Mountain and Jordan Pond
Park Loop Road, Acadia National Park
Bar Harbor, ME
Watch one of the first sunrises in the United States from a pink granite summit, then walk to a glassy glacial pond for tea and popovers below the twin Bubbles.
These two places are the heart of Acadia. Cadillac Mountain, at 1,530 feet, is the highest point on the Atlantic coast of the United States, and from fall through early spring its summit catches one of the first sunrises anywhere in the country. Its bald pink granite dome gives a sweeping view over Frenchman Bay, the Porcupine Islands, and the rolling forests of Mount Desert Island.
A short drive away, Jordan Pond offers Acadia at its most serene: a clear, deep glacial pond that mirrors the two rounded peaks known as the Bubbles at its far end. On the lawn of the Jordan Pond House, visitors have taken afternoon tea and popovers, a light, hollow pastry, for well over a century. Together the summit and the pond capture the two moods of the park, the grand and the gentle.
What Guests Love
- Standing on Cadillac's summit for one of the earliest sunrises in the country
- The 360-degree view over islands, ocean, and the forests of Acadia
- Popovers with jam on the lawn at Jordan Pond House, a century-old tradition
- The mirror-calm pond framed by the rounded peaks called the Bubbles
Worth Knowing
- A vehicle reservation is required in season to drive the Cadillac Summit Road; book ahead
- For sunrise, arrive well before first light and dress warmer than you expect; the summit is windy and cold
- The Jordan Pond loop trail is easy but includes log bridges and rocky stretches
- The Park Loop Road and popular lots fill early on summer days; the Island Explorer shuttle helps
Details
Bar Harbor, ME
Learn about Cadillac Mountain and Jordan Pond
The first light in America
Because Cadillac is both high and far to the east, it is one of the first places in the United States to see the sunrise for much of the year, roughly from early October through early March. On those mornings a crowd gathers in the dark at the summit to watch the sun break over the Atlantic.
The mountain was long called Green Mountain, and it was renamed for Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, a French adventurer who briefly held a land grant that included Mount Desert Island in the late 1600s before going on to found Detroit.
Today a summit road, reservations required in season, and a network of trails lead to the top, where the bare granite and low alpine plants give unobstructed views in every direction.
Jordan Pond and the Bubbles
Jordan Pond is a tarn, a lake carved and dammed by glacial action, and it is famous for the clarity of its water, which supplies drinking water and is protected from swimming to keep it clean.
At the pond's northern end rise the Bubbles, two smoothly rounded hills that reflect in the still water on a calm morning. A 3.3-mile trail loops the entire shoreline, easy underfoot except for a stretch of log bridges over the boggy west side.
The Jordan Pond House restaurant has served afternoon tea, popovers, and jam on its lawn since the late 1800s. The current building is newer, but the tradition of sitting on the grass with the pond and the Bubbles before you is one of Acadia's oldest rituals.
How Acadia came to be
The Wabanaki peoples, including the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy, have lived along this coast and traveled to Mount Desert Island for thousands of years, and they remain present in Maine today, gathering, guiding, and keeping their traditions.
In the late 1800s the island became a summer retreat for wealthy families, the rusticators, who built grand cottages. Alarmed at the prospect of development, conservationists led by George Dorr and Charles Eliot began buying and protecting land.
Their gift to the nation became Sieur de Monts National Monument in 1916, then Lafayette National Park in 1919, and finally Acadia National Park in 1929, the first national park east of the Mississippi. John D. Rockefeller Jr. added the network of carriage roads and stone bridges that still lace the park.
Season by season
Summer is peak season, warm and busy, with long days, full parking lots, and the Island Explorer shuttle running to ease the crowds. Reserve a summit time slot well ahead.
Fall is spectacular, when the island's hardwoods blaze and Cadillac becomes a sunrise destination as the first-light window opens in October, though weekends are crowded with leaf-peepers.
Winter closes the summit road and quiets the park, leaving the granite and spruce under snow, a stark and beautiful version of Acadia for those who come prepared for cold and ice.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Bar Harbor
Bar Harbor
About 5 miles, a 12 minute drive
The island's main town, with restaurants, shops, the shore path, and boat tours to see puffins, whales, and lighthouses.
Bass Harbor Head Light
About 20 miles, a 40 minute drive
The iconic cliffside lighthouse on the quiet southwestern side of Mount Desert Island.
Sand Beach and Thunder Hole
About 6 miles, a 15 minute drive
A rare sand beach on the rocky coast and a sea inlet that booms when the surf is right, both on the Park Loop Road.