ABANDONED TRAILS OF ACADIA NATIONAL PARK: THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPERS TRAIL

Everyone should be so lucky as to have their very own trail, well if you rent the bass Harbor Lighthouse, you get just that. The family that lives in the Lighthouse Keepers quarters use the trail to escape the summer crowds that find their way to the lighthouse each season. The trail is not marked but the start of it does have a KEEP OUT sign along with a locked gate. So from the parking lot, go right and follow a paved path downward. About half way down the path, along a fence, is a gate with a path which leds across a small field and into the woods. A short ways into the woods the path comes to a bluff with chairs and large shade tree's. From this bluff, in the shade, family members can sit and enjoy the fishing boats and Swans Island Ferry as they pass in and out of Bass Harbor.
To the right is a well worn path which follows the edge of the cliff to one side overlooking the harbor and woods to the other side. These woods here are full of wild berries and one evening at dusk we saw a large bear cross the lighthouse Road as it was headed toward those berries. It is the first and only bear i have seen in the twenty plus years I have lived here.
The path runs for some distance, coming to a farm which overlooks the harbor. The map shows two routes by which to reach this hidden path by.