Small-group guided trips on Mount Desert Island and the Maine coast, led by Registered Maine Guides who know every cove and clearing. Plus a field shop for the gear that makes them better.
From our shop in Bar Harbor you can be under Acadia's mossy spruce, in a Blue Hill hayfield or on a granite tide ledge by mid-morning. We take small groups to all three, slowly, and explain what you are looking at.
Every guide is a Registered Maine Guide with a Wilderness First Aid certification. Every trip follows the Leave No Trace principles, and 5% of every booking goes to Friends of Acadia and Maine Coast Heritage Trust.
Meet the guidesScroll through the habitats we know best. Each one changes completely through the year, which is why many guests come back every season.
Maine is the most heavily forested state in the country. On the coast, fog keeps the woods damp enough for moss and lichen to cover every surface.
Maine grows nearly all of the wild blueberries in the United States, and its late-mown hayfields are among the last strongholds of the bobolink.
Tides here rise and fall more than ten feet twice a day, uncovering tide pools full of sea stars, urchins and anemones along the cold Labrador Current.
When the swells roll in, we run storm-watching walks from safe headlands, sea duck mornings on Frenchman Bay and snowshoe walks in the spruce.
Prices are per person in US dollars and include all equipment and a hot drink. Kids under 16 pay about half. Acadia park entrance pass not included.
Our most booked trip. Green crabs, periwinkles, dog whelks, sea stars and green sea urchins, found by lifting rockweed gently and putting everything back.
A slow walk through spruce, fir and old hemlock, where boulders left by the glaciers wear thick coats of moss and every branch carries old man's beard lichen.
Paddle stable sea kayaks under pink granite cliffs and past the islands of Frenchman Bay, keeping a respectful distance from harbor seals hauled out on the ledges.
A full day in late-mown hayfields and lupine meadows: wild orchids, bobolinks nesting in the grass, monarchs on milkweed and the farmers who wait to cut.
No apps and no account. You talk to a person who has walked the route that week.
Send the form below or call the shop. We suggest the right trip for your group, tides and ages, then hold your spots for 48 hours.
We send a meeting point, parking and what to wear. On the day your guide brings all the gear, a first aid kit and a thermos.
Within two days you get a species list of everything your group found, photos from the guide and ideas for where to go next on your own.
The shop on Harbor Lane, Bar Harbor
Our harbor shop and online store carry a short list of gear we trust on the trail: tested in Maine fog, repaired in our own workshop.
Waterproof, nitrogen filled, 6.5 ft close focus for butterflies. Serviced in our workshop if anything goes wrong.
Viewing tub with magnifier lid, bamboo net, soft brush, bucket and a waterproof ID card. Ages 4 and up.
Ash splint basket woven in Maine, folding knife, mushroom brush, two cotton bags and thin gloves. Knife sold to adults 18+ only.
Built in our Bar Harbor workshop from untreated wood, with a 1.5 in hole sized for eastern bluebirds and a hinged roof.
Our guides keep this calendar from their own field notebooks on Mount Desert Island. The current month is outlined.
Rated 4.9 out of 5 from 1,240 reviews collected after each trip. We publish every one, including the three-star review about a very foggy June.
Our two boys had never lifted a curtain of rockweed before. Ninety minutes later they could tell a green crab from a rock crab and were arguing about dog whelks. We have booked the fall mushroom walk already.
Megan made a foggy, drizzly Acadia morning feel like the best place in New England. I came home with forty photos of lichen and no regrets.
Rob read the water perfectly. Flat calm past the islands, and a harbor seal surfaced thirty feet from my kayak. Gear was spotless.
The four questions we hear most. There are sixteen more on the FAQ page.
Read all FAQsNo. Every walk goes at an easy pace and we lend hand lenses, binoculars, nets and viewing tubs. You need sturdy footwear and a rain jacket. For kayaking and snorkeling we provide all the water gear, including 7 mm wetsuits.
Forest and meadow walks go ahead in drizzle and fog. If the National Weather Service issues a warning, or a small craft advisory makes water trips unsafe, we move you to another date or refund in full. You choose.
Yes. Tide pool safaris start at age 3, most walks at 6, kayaking at 8 and snorkeling at 12. Kids under 16 must come with an adult and pay the child price.
Use the form below or call us at (207) 555-0148. We confirm dates by email within one business day and send a meeting point with GPS coordinates and parking notes.
Tide pool safaris run on every good low tide from April to October. Spots for 20, families welcome, $70 for a family of four.
