To find the trail head, drive out of Bar Harbor down Route 3. There are no signs for the trailhead or for parking, so as soon as you pass Tarn Lake on the right, you can pull off and park on the side of the road.

Elevation on the ladder trail starts immediately and doesn't let up until you reach the summit, which is the downside of summiting a 1200ft mountain in one mile. The trail is 90% rock stairs, 5% large, sloping rocks, 3% ladders and 2% flat. About 0.75 miles up, you start to get a good view of the water and the views only get better from there. There are a couple of trail junctions, but just keep following the signs for Dorr Mountain!

From the summit take the Dorr South Ridge trail down to enjoy amazing views for the first quarter of the way down. At the first junction go left on the Canon Brook Trail and then take that straight onto Kane Path to lead yourself back to the Ladder Trailhead. The entire descent is 2.6 miles. 

We wrapped up our hike with a stop at Lompoc Cafe, which has some of the more delicious and cheap food in Bar Harbor!