Great Head

Cross the beach with the ocean on your right; granite steps at the far end mark the trail start. Depending on tide and season, a small stream may cross the sand near the steps. The full loop is 1.9 miles round trip, with a shorter 1.3-mile option at a junction. Take the left branch there for the shorter loop; continue straight for the longer one. The coast section has uneven rock, short steep stretches and exposed drops, then the return heads inland through forest.

Parking and accessible restrooms are at Sand Beach. Its parking can be congested in July and August, especially from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., so leave extra time during that busy window. The beach has accessible parking, but the Great Head route itself is rocky and uneven.

The open ledge just above the first granite steps looks back over Sand Beach with the Beehive behind it. It’s the best place to take in how the beach sits between the headland and the mountain. For a photo, keep a strip of the bare ledge in the foreground and fit the beach and Beehive into the same frame.

Look at the long grooves across the exposed rock near the top. They’re marks left when glacial ice dragged stones over the granite, a small detail that gives the smooth-looking coast a rougher history.

The Satterlee family built a small circular teahouse here, completing it in fall 1915 as a stop for walks through their coastal estate. Made of stone and cement, it stood about 15 feet high and 18 feet across, with a ladder leading to an observation deck over Frenchman Bay. It survived the 1947 fire, then was demolished in the 1960s because of safety concerns. The site is now ruins, not an intact tower.

The route was part of the Bar Harbor Village Improvement trail system in the late 1800s. Near the top of the starting granite steps is a 6-foot-10-inch millstone; farther along, a bronze plaque marks where David Phillips McKinney died in 1969.