Around Mountain Loop

Around Mountain Loop is Acadia’s 11.3-mile circuit on historic carriage roads, circling wooded mountain slopes and crossing seven named bridges. Allow about five hours, plus time to stop at the water crossings. It’s a long outing on firm but sometimes loose gravel, with real climbing and descending near the loop’s high point.

The park’s junction sequence is 18 → 19 → 12 → 10 north → 10 south → 14 → 21 → 20 → 19 → 18. The Parkman Mountain Carriage Road access joins the circuit near junction 12; carry the carriage-road map and follow the numbered junctions. The park lists this loop at 11.3 miles. Another mapped version gives 12.1 miles, while the traced line measures about 10.6, so mileage sources do not match exactly. Use 11.3 as the park’s named-loop figure and leave time in reserve.

This is a walking route on Acadia’s broken-stone carriage-road system, shared with cyclists and horses. Loose gravel can make footing less secure, and there are no separate lanes, so listen for faster traffic and give horses room. The route is a continuous loop rather than a summit scramble; its payoff is the old road, bridge architecture and the streams and ravines that the bridges cross.

Waterfall Bridge crosses Upper Hadlock Brook above a 40-foot waterfall. Hemlock Bridge spans a deep, rocky ravine cut by Maple Spring Brook. Chasm Brook Bridge crosses Chasm Falls, and Deer Brook Bridge passes another waterfall near the north end of Jordan Pond. The remaining crossings are West Branch Jordan Stream, Cliffside and Amphitheatre bridges; each is a reason to slow down rather than rush through the miles.

The highest point is on the northwestern side, between Chasm Brook and Hemlock bridges. The road climbs steeply to it and drops steeply away on either side, so the day is not flat even though you are on a carriage road. The named bridge sequence helps you tell where you are; use the map at junctions instead of following an appealing branch that would shorten or lengthen the circuit.

John D. Rockefeller Jr. and his family built Acadia’s carriage-road system between 1913 and 1940. Its broken-stone surface and carefully engineered bridges were designed for carriage travel, and they remain the character of this route. Waterfall Bridge dates to 1925; it was the fifth of 17 bridges built along the island network. Hemlock Bridge followed in 1924, and its ravine made the site difficult to lay out without disturbing the ground.

Parkman Mountain Carriage Road Trailhead is the practical starting access; Acadia lists 13 spaces there. A park entrance pass is required. Dogs are allowed on carriage roads on a leash no longer than six feet. Spring mud-season closures protect the gravel when it is soft, so check current road status before setting out. For a photo stop, frame the stone arch of Waterfall Bridge with the drop of Upper Hadlock Brook visible below it.