Allow me to tell you a story of one of the most difficult short hikes I’ve ever done. I was hiking alone in Acadia National Park and decided to hike one of the more challenging trails in the park, the Beehive. Marked with blue blazes, this 1.5 mile loop trail has about 500 feet of elevation change and is rather tricky. That being said, I saw all ages coming down off the trail as I was headed up.
The hike up started with walking through what was essentially a shaded boulder field and then you get to the cairn pictured above. I made a right to continue up the face of the beehive. The first view is nice and getting there is sketchy, but the higher you get, the prettier and sketchier it becomes.
The entire time that you’re on this part of the trail you are only inches away from falling down the side of a mountain. Fixated to the rocks are metal rungs helping you maneuver your way up the cliff face. It was absolutely exhilarating.
After hauling myself up the side of this mountain, I was greeted to an amazing view of the Mount Desert Narrows and the surrounding area.
The way down was a much easier trek with wonderful views of The Bowl, manmade steps, and an elevated path.
Most of the way down is steps. It’s doable for those that want the views without the immense challenge to hike up the back way, stop when you get to where the rungs start and turn around. I would not recommend doing this backwards the entire way at all. It was difficult enough doing this going up, I can’t even imagine going down. 10/10 would recommend to a friend, but definitely only in dry conditions.