Precipice Trail

Precipice Trail

Two of the most popular and challenging trails in Acadia National Park are the Precipice and Beehive trails. I decided to save the best for last, and did both trails on our last day in Acadia.

First, the Precipice trail, a vertical climb of 0.9 miles to Champlain Summit at 1,058 ft, involves a lot of rock scrambling and iron-rung assisted climbing.

At the trailhead is a large yellow sign warning hikers of the possible dangers.
The beginning of the trail looks mild enough
with stone steps.
But we soon encountered our first set of iron steps.
Rock scrambling over
And under large boulders.
A cute wooden bridge
Iron railings along the ledge help prevent hikers from tumbling down the cliffside.
Sets of iron steps follow one after another
Making this trail look like an adult playground
The Atlantic Ocean in the background
This is probably the sketchiest part of the hike where the width of the ledge is about 2 abreast
We made it to the summit in a little over an hour
Instead of taking the Precipice trail back down, we opted for the longer 1.3-mile Orange & Black path off the Champlain North Ridge trail, and ‘flew’ down in 30 minutes.

I wouldn’t consider the Precipice trail a technical hike, but it certainly isn’t your run of the mill hike. It was a lot of fun to do, and I’d strongly recommend this trail to anyone who is not of afraid of heights.

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