Quick hiking stats:
Distance: 1.5 miles roundtrip
Difficulty: Moderate-hard (some scurrying and climbing)
Length of time: 1-3 (depending how many times you stop to take photos or break)
Elevation Gain: 508 Ft.
Cliff notes: Go counterclockwise (where most people go) around the loop, so you’ll be climbing up first. If you’re afraid of heights, maybe don’t try this one. I’m a little scared of heights and I was okay with my husband being behind me the whole time. You need to wear good grip sturdy shoes! This hike starts out as a slope through the trees hiking on rocks. Then you start to climb!
The parts you have to climb up have metal railings, so that makes it easier. The width is that of a sidewalk when you’re walking along the cliffside. You’ll climb for maybe 45 minutes to reach the top and then the rest of the loop is smooth sailing. You’ll descend down the mountain and it’s very easy. Dogs aren’t allowed on this hike, so leave the fur babies at home!
How do I get to the Beehive Loop Trail in Acadia National Park?
The Beehive loop trail is located in Acadia National Park. You’ll need a national park pass to get in. I recommend purchasing a national park pass!
Once you enter the park, you can drive to the trailhead and parking is alongside the one-way road. The Beehive trailhead is located across from Sand Beach.
You can easily find the trailhead here!
How long does it take to hike?
The hike takes an average of an hour to three hours totally depending on your speed, how busy it is, and how quick you are at climbing up ladders and using rails.
It took us about 45 minutes to climb up to the top, and about 30 minutes to hike back down. We stopped and took a lot of photos and videos though. Which you will definitely want to as well. Be sure to check out my photography gear at the bottom of the page! We were on this hike for about 2 hours.
If you are an average hiker, I would estimate about 2 hours to complete the entire loop, take photos, take breaks and enjoy the views! 🙂
What should I expect?
You should expect to start out at the trailhead and climb uphill for about 0.2 miles until you reach an intersection. There is a huge rock pile there in the middle of the intersection, can’t miss it. I’ll show you with photos what this looks like! You’ll take a right at the intersection to go counter clock wise up the mountain.
After you go to the right of the intersection, you’ll start to climb up the mountain rock formations. I honestly didn’t think the climbing was that hard at all. I saw some older kids doing this hike. But if you are afraid of heights, I wouldn’t recommend.
It is thought one of the MOST fun hikes I’ve ever done in my life. There are insane views almost the entire way up! Plus, it’s fun (in my opinion) climbing up the ladders and rocks!
See there are these incredible overlooks all the way up! It is a very crowded hike, so you do have to wait in lines from time to time. But, it’s still SO worth it!
This is the overlook right before you reach the summit of the Acadia beehive trail.
At the summit, there is a huge open rock area to take all kinds of photos and freely walk around! I even saw this beautiful sea gull 🙂 Isn’t he cute?!
Is the Beehive Loop Trail dangerous?
Overall, I don’t think it is… if you know how to hike and climb up rocks! If you’re unstable, fear of heights, I’d recommend skipping this one. I did see kids hiking it, so I don’t want you to think it’s super scary of anything because I honestly thought it was pretty easy!
Is it worth adding it to top things to do in Maine?
Absolutely! It was my favorite hike we did in Maine, and actually my favorite activity out of all of the things we did in Maine! There are beautiful views the entire way up, and it makes this hike super fun and unique!
What should I wear?
I would 100% recommend wearing shoes that have no slip and great grip! It was about 50 degrees outside (which to me is freezing because I live in Hawaii), and I took off my layers as soon as we started climbing. I just had a shirt on, some jeans and hiking boots!
If you’d like to shop my fall outfits I wore on this trip to New England be sure to shop at my Like To Know It! You can click on each post and it’ll show you my linked products or similar items if they’re out of stock.
Where should I stay near Acadia National Park?
Here are my top three recommendations for hotels to stay! My biggest tip is to book EARLY ahead of time. These hotels book out super fast, especially during peak foliage season when we went.
My recommended photography gear:
- Sony ZV-1F Vlog Camera for Content Creators and Vloggers White
- Sony a7 III ILCE7M3/B Full-Frame Mirrorless Camera (base only)
- Tamron 28-75mm F/2.8 for Sony Mirrorless Full Frame
- Camera Backpack 17.3 inch (with laptop flap)
- 128 GB memory card SanDisk
- 5 TB external hard drive
Conclusions about the hike:
This was the most fun activity we did while visiting Maine for the fall. The fall foliage was breathtaking and the hike was the perfect hike for beautiful fall hikes with epic overlooks! And you can get a variety of overlooks and angles.
On our New England fall road trip we also visited Vermont and went to the Cold Hollow Cider Mill for the best cider ever, an awesome corn maze in Stowe, several waterfall hikes too, and much more!
