The Appalachian Mountain Club and Acadia National Park’s trails team improved a section of the heavily visited path with funding from Friends of Acadia.
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Birch Bay Retirement Village.
ACADIA NATIONAL PARK — A 500-foot stretch of Ocean Path near Otter Point Overlook has been improved to make the popular coastal trail more accessible to visitors with disabilities and more durable for years to come.
The newest improvements focus on the Ocean Path, which is a 2.2 mile stretch of the park that extends from Sand Beach, past Thunder Hole, and alongside the Park Loop Road in a heavily visited portion of the national park, that attracts approximately 4 million visits annually.
“This fall, the Appalachian Mountain Club, working with Acadia National Park’s trails program, made improvements to a 500-foot section of Ocean Path west of Otter Point Overlook. The project makes the trail more durable, and the ocean views from Otter Point more accessible,” Friends of Acadia’s Perrin Doniger said.
The nonprofit group, often referred to simply as FOA, paid for a majority of the work on the trail via its Acadia Trails Forever endowment.
“The work is funded in part by Friends of Acadia through the Acadia Trails Forever endowment. The National Park Service works to ensure that visitors with disabilities have equal opportunities to enjoy and benefit from park facilities, programs, services, and activities, both indoors and outdoors,” Acadia National Park Management Assistant John T. Kelly said.
According to the National Park Service’s Director’s Order 42, issued in 2025, roughly between 10 and 20 percent of the park system’s visitors have a disability.
“And even more visitors have physical, cognitive, and sensory limitations that do not meet the legal definition of disability but that nonetheless could affect their experiences,” the order writes.
The park has other accessible areas—including 45 miles of carriage roads, which are typically wide, gravel areas that can support wheelchairs, walkers, bikes, and other assisted devices—but multiple recent projects have increased that accessibility in various areas.
“This work is part of ongoing efforts to improve accessibility throughout the park. Other recent accessible trail projects in Acadia include the new East-West Cadillac Connector Trail at the summit of Cadillac Mountain, an accessible viewing overlook at Bass Harbor Head Light, and the Hemlock Path boardwalk, completed last fall in the Great Meadow by a dedicated team of skilled volunteers (Jerry Hopcroft, Mark Munsell, Gary Stellpflug, Terese Miller, and Bill Shaw),” Doniger said.
According to Kelly, the park’s trail crew has worked with the club to repair and improve that 500 foot section on the southern portion of the path.
“The improvements are designed to enhance accessibility for visitors with disabilities and improve the overall visitor experience. The work includes bringing in large amounts of rock material, which the crews spread and compact to help preserve the trail for future generations,” Kelly said.
MDI Wheelers also had a great season, Doniger said, referencing the nonprofit that gives people rides around Eagle Lake’s carriage road system.
“We offer safe and comfortable rides on special electric-assist trikes for people who would like a ride on the carriage roads but need assistance. All rides are free. The program we offer has received a special use permit from Acadia National Park,” the organization writes on its website.
“They gave 157 rides on the carriage roads, which is about a 20% increase over last year,” Doniger said.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
There are a few video clips of the Ocean Path trail work in progress on FOA’s social media page here.
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/policy/upload/DO_42_9-12-2025.pdf
Acadia National Park Accessibility
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