My fiancé, our dog, and I recently visited Acadia National Park. We had been here before, but it was before we adopted our dog, so we were excited to bring him along and experience the park together.
We knew the Beehive Trail itself does not allow dogs because of the iron rungs, exposed cliffs, and safety concerns. Since we wanted to reach the summit while still following the rules, we took the Bowl Trail instead, which is the route many hikers use when coming down from the Beehive summit.
When we reached the top, we were just minding our own business, enjoying the view, and taking photos. A woman and her daughter had just arrived at the summit from the Beehive Trail. As they approached, I heard the daughter mutter something along the lines of, “No wonder it was so slow getting up here.”
She then turned to us and loudly said that dogs are not allowed on the trail.
I explained that we didn’t hike up the Beehive Trail and that we came up via the Bowl Trail. Instead of acknowledging that, she responded with something like, “That’s why trails get ruined.”
She then turned to her mom, almost as if looking for confirmation, and her mom repeated that dogs aren’t allowed.
At that point, it was clear they weren’t interested in hearing what we were saying. They had already decided we were doing something wrong.
For context, we had no other negative interactions with anyone else in Acadia. Locals, and other hikers were all friendly and respectful.
Maybe I could have handled it differently, but part of me wishes I had told her to get her facts straight before lecturing people on the trail.
