Acadia National Park guide · 2 min read
Iron Rungs: Precipice, Beehive and Jordan Cliffs
Acadia has an unusual number of trails where iron rungs and ladders are bolted straight into the granite.
Much like a via ferrata, these fixed holds carry hikers up steep rock and along thin shelves of cliff. Four routes stand out: the Precipice Trail, the Beehive Trail, the Jordan Cliffs Trail and the Beech Cliff Ladder Trail.
The Precipice Trail is the hardest and most dangerous of the group. Leaving from a parking lot on the Park Loop Road, it climbs the eastern side of Champlain Mountain and gains over 1,000 feet in less than a mile. Along the way you scramble over boulders, squeeze beneath rocks bigger than a car and haul yourself up one set of metal rungs after another, sometimes on ledges only a few feet wide. The full outing is about 2.5 miles round trip. Hikers have fallen to their deaths here, so it calls for prior hiking experience and real comfort with heights.
The Beehive Trail sits a short distance south and works as a gentler test. The loop runs about 1.4 miles, starting from the Sand Beach parking lot on the Bowl Trail and returning past The Bowl. It has less climbing and less exposure than the Precipice, but it still has narrow cliff ledges, rung ladders and small bridges fixed to the rock. From the top you look down on Sand Beach and Great Head. Families with young children and people uneasy about heights are better off choosing another hike.
The Beech Cliff Ladder Trail offers rungs and brief cliff walks with less risk. The route begins at the Echo Lake Beach entrance and covers about 2.2 miles. It looks out over lakes and the coastline, and the cliffs along the Beech Cliff Loop are wide enough to stay well back from the edge. The Jordan Cliffs Trail also has iron rungs and cliff walking.
