We scheduled the Beehive Trail for our afternoon hike on the last day of our trip. As we were making our way back to the hotel after lunch to regroup, I saw an interesting trail on Google maps.
There’s a little hiker icon in the middle of the water!
Intrigued, we made a quick detour to check it out.
The Bar Island path connects the town of Bar Harbor to the tidal island of Bar Island.The path is passable during low tide only, and you want to avoid getting stranded on the island.A handy tidal time table helps you plan your hike.We were actually there an hour after low tide, so it was the perfect time to cross the gravel bar.Bar island has a nice gentle hiking path amongst the pine and birch trees.
Since Beehive was the main event for the afternoon, we didn’t linger much on Bar Island. However, I really appreciated the unique experience.
The key to hiking Beehive is to go counterclockwise, so that you’re going up the rungs instead of down. We saw a few doing the clockwise loop, but they were in the minority.
Trail starts off with the usual rocky terrain.Similar warning sign as those found on the Precipice TrailLook up and you’ll see hikers clinging onto the cliff face. That’s where we were headed, and surprisingly, it didn’t faze the two in our group who are mildly afraid of heights.Unlike the Precipice trail, this one rewards you with a stunning view shortly into the trail, and the view just gets better and better as you go up.First set of iron rungsBeautiful fall colors with Sand Beach in the distance. I can only imagine fall being the best time to hike this trail.Everyone with their backs firmly planted against the rock wall.Looking down with a view of the party behind us.Some of the rungs were a little high for those of us who are a bit height challenged.Standing at 520ft, Beehive was the lowest of all the summits we’d reached this past week.The foggy topMaking our way back down
Of the two trails, Precipice is a bit more fun because of how close you get to the cliff edge. However, Beehive is much more scenic, and you get more bang for the buck in that regards. I would recommend doing both trails if you can, but if you have to pick only one, then I would recommend Beehive for the gorgeous views.
FIRE'd @ 47 