Gorham Mountain Trail – Acadia

Distance: 3.4 miles Elevation Gain: 525 ft Difficulty: Moderate Type: Loop Surface: open granite Activity: Hiking Best Season: Year-round Typical Time: 2-3 hours Fee: Included with park pass Dogs: Yes, on leash Permit: No

Gorham Mountain Trail offers some of the most expansive summit views in Acadia National Park from a peak that is low enough to reach comfortably and technical enough to be genuinely rewarding. The trail climbs through spruce forest and over open granite ledges to the 525-foot summit, passing the Cadillac Cliffs section where sea caves and coastal geology formed during the last ice age are visible in the cliff faces beside the trail. The summit opens to a full 360-degree panorama: the Atlantic Ocean and the Cranberry Isles to the south, Sand Beach and Great Head below, and the forested slopes of Champlain Mountain and Dorr Mountain to the north.

Gorham Mountain is particularly popular in October when the park's hardwood forests turn red and gold and the summit views extend across a brilliant fall landscape. The Cadillac Cliffs spur on the descent adds an additional 0.6 miles through a narrow cleft in the granite that shows the dramatic erosional power of glacial ice on the Mount Desert Island landscape. The loop begins at the Sand Beach parking area, making it easily combined with a walk along Ocean Path or a dip in the frigid but spectacular Sand Beach. Morning light on the pink Cadillac Granite of the summit ledges is exceptional.