Hiking the Precipice Trail in Acadia National Park
Touted as the park’s most challenging and nerve-wracking hike, The Precipice Trail in Acadia National Park is a gem of not only this park, but of the Northeast.
Why? Because the Precipice Trail is one of Acadia’s famed iron rung routes. It creatively scales the rugged cliffside of Champlain Mountain with the use of iron rung ladders. Not only will you be climbing up sheer rock walls using these ladders, but you’ll be walking across narrow granite cliffside ledges with some significant exposure, scrambling through rocky obstacles, and gaining 1,000 feet of elevation in less than a mile. That’s steep.
Hiking the Precipice Trail certainly isn’t for everyone. Before you embark on this challenging trail, you really do need to have experience with this kind of hiking, and definitely be okay with heights and exposure.
In this article, we’ll give you a small taste of what it’s like to hike the Precipice Trail in Acadia National Park, and give you our best tips along the way, to help you decide if hiking this trail is right for you!
Things to Know About the Precipice Trail in Acadia
The Precipice Trail in Numbers
Distance: 2.5 miles
Elevation Gain: 1,300 feet (keep in mind an over 1,000 foot gain occurs in just 0.9 miles to the summit! Another 300 feet is gained on the way down along the Orange and Black trail.)
Time: 2-3 hours
Trail Profile: Our Garmin watch got confused with all the zigzagging up the cliffs and misrepresented the actual distance traveled! And our “up” and “down” got broke into two different graphs because we stayed too long at the summit enjoying the views! (oops!) But we’ll still show our maps in case it helps!
Trail type: This is a loop trail. It is highly discouraged to retrace your steps back down the Precipice Trail from the summit. It’s dangerous, and it will also cause hazardous two-way congestion at the most dangerous part along the trail. Instead, take the North Ridge Trail off the summit. This trail intersects with the Orange and Black Trail. Follow this all the way back to the parking lot.
Getting to the Precipice Trailhead
The start of the Precipice Trail is found at the beginning of Park Loop Road, before the Sand Beach entrance.
It’s a pretty small parking lot on the right, and it fills up fast on busy weekends. Parking is allowed on the right side of the road, thankfully. We arrived at 7:45 am on a Sunday and had to park a good distance up the road. Try getting here by 7 am for a spot in the lot.
Also note: The Precipice Trailhead lies on the portion of Park Loop Road that is one-way. So don’t miss it, and when you see a spot, take it. Luckily you won’t have to drive the entire Park Loop Road to go back, though, because right before Sand Beach entrance is a turnoff to a two- way road that will bring you back to Bar Harbor and the park’s entrance.
Best time to hike the Precipice Trail
While the best time to hike in Acadia in general is late spring to early fall, this might not be the case for the Precipice Trail. Often, the trail remains closed between March and mid-August due to peregrine falcon nesting along the cliffside. Make sure to check the trail conditions before you go!
And of course, don’t hike in the rain…this trail becomes very dangerous when wet.
Hiking the Precipice Trail in Acadia: A Step-by-Step Guide
There is no warm up to the Precipice Trail hike – it starts off gaining elevation right away as the first steps you take are up a steep granite slab.
The trail is rugged and rocky right off the bat. To navigate your way, follow the blue blazes along the rock faces (and sometimes on trees).
Before long, you’ll come to your very first iron rung! Long before the exposure and narrow ledges, we actually thought this move right at the beginning was the trickiest move on the entire trail! We joked that it was placed there to weed people out by giving a taste of what’s to come. It’s three rungs used to help maneuver over a giant boulder, but you really have to think about foot placement here.
Remember: You’ll be coming down this at the end of the hike, and it’s even trickier going down!
From here, you’ll continue along the rocky trail. You’ll come to a set of iron railings to balance yourself with your hands and feet across a slanted slab. Again, I like to think that these were put here as another taste of what’s to come so that people can experience it before the real stuff. So be honest with yourself here - if these last two iron rung features weren’t your cup of tea, you might not do so hot on the rest of the trail.
You’ll climb up a steep boulder field. It’s here where the views really start opening up behind you.
You’ll scramble your way up, over, and even under giant boulders, squeezing your way through two boulder caves.
Once through these, it is here that you really begin the traverse along the cliffside of Champlain Mountain. You’ll encounter a lot of stone stairs (par for the course on many Acadia trails!), some fun rock scrambles, and some rails to help you guide you along ledges. If you’re not used to this kind of hiking, it can be quite exhausting and challenging.
At one point, you’ll cross a small wooden bridge that will give you a glimpse of some of the exposure that lies ahead on the trail.
After just 0.4 miles, you’ll come to a junction with the Orange and Black Trail. You will be returning to this point via the Orange and Black Trail at the end of the hike. But now, if you’re still feeling up to it, take a left to continue the climb up the Precipice. From here, it’s a mere half mile to the top, but it’s going to get interesting!
After the junction, the trail immediately becomes steep. You’ll climb stone steps and rocky scrambles with the help of some isolated iron rails and rungs here and there. Most of this early part of the climb is still in the woods. There are rocky ledges, but they do not have nearly the cliffside exposure that’s to come.
Finally, you’ll come to the first big iron ladder climb of the hike, taking you up the vertical side of a rock face.
And then another.
From the top of these climbs are where the views really open up back down to Park Loop Road and the Harbor. And, this is where the exposure really starts. You’ll suddenly find yourself walking across narrow granite ledges along the vertical cliffside with some pretty steep exposure. The rungs along the cliffside are really helpful to keep your cool, knowing you have something to hold on to.
From here, you’ll be using iron rungs quite often as you continue the hike up the Precipice Trail to climb up both short and tall rock faces along the cliffside. The reason we loved this trail so much was because it truly does not disappoint when it comes to fun features and scrambles. It’s pretty consistent throughout the entire trail. The hike along the Precipice Trail certainly lives up to the hype.
There’s one point along the path where you have to climb up and then down a set of rungs to get around a protruding cliffside rock feature. The down part gives you a taste of why you don’t want to be hiking down this trail to get back to your car. It’s much scarier, partly because you can see what’s in front of you as you maneuver down the rungs!
After another long ladder climb…
…you’ll top off and look ahead to see in front of you the scariest part of the entire Precipice Trail. This is the only part that really tested my nerves. It’s the narrowest granite ledge of the trail, has the most exposure, and the small granite ledge that you have to walk across actually slopes downward. Yes, down. But don’t worry, there’s a series of rungs to hold on along the side of the cliff and also along the ledge for your feet to catch as you walk across. Like that sounds comforting, right?
It’s a short but intense section to cross if you’re afraid of heights or not used to exposure. But the good news, once you make it past here, that’s pretty much it! This narrow ledge spills you out just under the summit block.
You’ll head into the woods where you have one last ladder climb up a small cliff face and then it’s a short walk to the summit.
At the summit, give yourself a nice pat on the back…you made it! And you earned these views. The summit is pretty big, so find a nice spot to yourself and enjoy the views of the harbor, the Atlantic, and of Cadillac Mountain looming behind you.
You might be sharing the summit with some small furry guys looking for handouts. Enjoy watching them scurry about but please don’t feed these little guys, as cute as they are…it’s not good for them!
The Orange and Black Trail
As we said before, it is not advised to hike the Precipice Trail back to the trailhead. To get back down, make a loop back to your car by taking the North Ridge trail from the summit. This trail has nice open views for a while as you walk across the granite slopes.
When you come to the next junction, follow the signs onto the Orange and Black Trail. This will loop you back to the beginning of the Precipice Trail and back to your car. From here, it’s exactly 1 mile.
The Orange and Black Trail is not a walk in the park, though. It’s actually pretty rough, and tiring, and steep. I thought it was more exhausting than the Precipice Trail itself! I think it was in part due to the fact that I wasn’t mentally prepared…I though the hard stuff was behind me and the rest would be easy. And while the trail doesn’t have the narrow ledges, exposure, and iron rungs that the Precipice Trail has, it’s still work. You’re traversing back along the lower section of the rugged cliffside…there are lots of stone stairs (lots), some scrambles, some uphill climbs. This part of the trail felt long.
The trail joins back up with the Precipice Trail for the last 0.4 miles of the hike. When you get to that intersection, you’re almost done! You’ll crawl through the boulder caves, hike back down the rock fields, and make that one last tricky move down the first iron rung move. And before you know it, you’re back to the car and now officially have bragging rights that you made it through the Precipice!
Tips for Hiking the Precipice Trail in Acadia
The Precipice Trail should really only be attempted by experienced hikers who are used to exposure and heights. There comes a point along the trail where it’s too difficult to turn around and go back if you start getting too tired or nervous.
If you’re unsure if you can handle the Precipice Trail, try another of Acadia’s iron rung routes first. We recommend trying the Jordan Cliffs Trail. It has the iron rungs and some exposure, but it’s not nearly as intense as the Precipice, so it’s a good way to test your nerves. Some say the Beehive Trail is a good first hike, too, but, although it’s shorter and quicker, it still has some pretty gnarly exposure that might not be the greatest as a test of your nerves.
Stay on trail by following the blue blazes along the rocks. At the top, you may start to see Bates Cairns. These are specially built cairns that are both historically important to the park but also help guide the way along the trail…please don’t add or remove rocks from them!
No dogs or small kids should hike this trail. If you want to get to the summit of Champlain, there are plenty of other routes up the mountain.
Do not hike this trail in wet or rainy conditions! The granite and rungs become dangerously slippery.
Wear good hiking boots with good grip for the granite surfaces.
Plan to do the full 2.5 mile loop…going back down the Precipice Trail is not recommended.
Get there early… probably before 7 am if you want a spot in the parking lot (on the weekends, anyways). It also helps to get there early to avoid the crowds. Even though there were quite a few cars there already when we got to the trailhead, we were pleasantly surprised by how uncrowded the trail was (which is always a good thing on a dangerous trail). There were no backups, and we really only saw a few other groups. The way down, though, was a different story. When we were hiking the last 0.4 miles down the Precipice Trail back to the car, there were tons of people heading up. It took us forever to hike this small section of trail because we had to constantly pull over and wait for large groups to pass in the opposite direction.
Wear sunscreen – this hike has a lot of exposure and little shade.
Pack light – it’s way easier to scramble and climb up the iron rungs with a light pack on your back.
As always, practice Leave No Trace principles.
Is hiking the Precipice Trail in Acadia on your bucketlist? Have you hiked it before? What did you think? Let us know in the comments below!