Acadia NP Tips
 

The AMflier family will be tent camping at the Blackwoods campground at Acadia NP the week before labor day weekend. It's our first time there. We are planning on hiking the South Trail to Cadillac Mountain, biking the carriage roads, taking a sea kayaking tour, and stopping at LL Bean on the drive up.

What else should we put on our "must do" list?
How cold should we expect the nights to get?
What else is essential to know about that area?

We will be looking dining recommendations for a couple of nights near the park and also for the drive to / from NYC.
There's only one seafood lover in the family, the others don't eat any seafood. One of us is also a vegetarian (no fish)

Thank you in advance for any and all suggestions.
AM

Acadia is beautiful. I'd love to spend more time there.

Bar Harbor is the gateway to Acadia and the closest town with nice hotels, stores, and restaurants. I enjoyed the restaurant Havana there. It's not as fancy as it thinks it is, but it was still good.

Nights can get into the 50s...or they might be in the 70s. The ocean moderates things a bit.

Reviving this old thread since there are quite a few on Acadia already, and this one focused on camping.

My main question is if AMflier or anyone else has comments on how hard it would be to get a first-come-first-served campsite on a Sunday somewhat pre-peeping season (i.e. 13 days from now)? I'm hoping most people are leaving on Sunday.

I've got an itinerary planned thanks to the many comments in other threads. Will do Saturday along HWY 1, Sunday and Monday in Acadia, Tuesday driving through the Kanc and some hiking, and Wednesday over to Ticonderoga then back home to the EWR area.

Any thoughts or tips are welcomed. Especially on good moderate hiking trails. However we're locked into the dates we have, no interest in seafood, just going for nature/hiking and see some new places, as well as any leaves that turn early. It's a bit heavy on the driving I know, hoping to mitigate that with some good hiking to keep our legs alive rather than cutting out places as we'll likely not be up that way again. TIA

We made reservations at Blackwoods so I can really speak to the first come first serve campsites. I would look at camping / hiking blogs for more information.
Reservations are inexpensive, so if there's anything available, I would grab it.

That said, having researched the first come sites, I came away with:
You are more likely to find a first come site on a weekday.
You are more likely to find one earlier in the day.
If you are planning on arriving late, first come first served is probably not for you.
Have a plan B

Thanks, that was a silly mistake for me to make. The no reservation sites I was looking at were in the White Mountains, and I got to Blackwoods and didn't read far enough along when looking over the site. Now booked at Blackwoods. Much appreciated.

Make sure that you get up early enough to walk to the ocean for the sunrise.
It is spectacular.

We're planning on doing the Cadillac Mountain sunrise, but if we don't get up in time we'll definitely walk over. Thanks.