2 Best Sights in Acadia National Park and Mount Desert Island, Maine

Evoking rugged Maine with a timber frame design, the 11,000-square-foot Acadia Gateway Center transit hub and visitor information center opened in 2025 on the west side of Route 3 a few miles before the causeway onto Mount Desert Island. The Maine Department of Transportation facility has a park-and-ride for the free seasonal Island Explorer buses that serve Acadia National Park and nearby towns. Even if you’re not taking the bus, you can pick up visitor information about the park and state, buy park entrance passes, and use the restroom.

One of New England’s best-known reversing falls—the phenomenon is created when the current “reverses” en route from bay to harbor—roils just below the U.S. 1 bridge linking Hancock and Sullivan. Frenchman Bay Conservancy’s 8-acre preserve (no dogs allowed) beside the falls on the Hancock side is a great picnic spot, with tables strung along the waterfront. Two hours before and two hours after low tide is the best time for viewing the falls. The preserve has a viewing platform, and placards explain the area's rich history and ecology. Granite was quarried nearby and shipped in schooners over the falls, once the site of a ferry and train terminal for Bar Harbor visitors. The mingling of fresh and salt water creates an environment that attracts wildlife, especially birds and waterfowl. Check the conservancy's website for information about free concerts at 6 pm on Mondays in the peak summer season—food trucks will be there. The website also lists hiking opportunities at its many other preserves in the region, from Ellsworth to the Schoodic Peninsula.