Welcome to the Acadia Trails Website!

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) is currently undertaking an ongoing project in conjunction with Acadia National Park to expand Acadia's online presence and increase accessibility to Acadia's hiking trails.

History of this Project

The project's history dates back to 2012 when WPI sent the first student team to Acadia National Park to photograph a trail. The initial team worked diligently for 7 weeks and completed only a quarter mile of the trail.

Over time, as technology improved, subsequent teams were able to cover more miles of trails throughout the park. In 2015, they began using panoramic cameras to expedite the process, and by 2016, they had photographed the majority of trails in Acadia, preparing them to become virtual tours.

After a temporary pause, WPI resumed the project in 2020, resulting in the creation of the Acadia Trails website. The 2020 team focused on transforming the panoramic images into virtual tours, allowing users to experience the sensation of walking down a trail through these tours.

In the following years, the project continued to progress with the 2021 team working on website enhancements, creating more panoramic trail tours, and publishing them on the website. Additionally, they developed content about other interesting park information to create a comprehensive destination for Acadia's visitors.

Currently, the 2023 team is actively working on revitalizing the website, completing the collection of missing trail images, and updating old ones. Notably, the newest website features include the Trail Map and Trail Finder, both of which provide easy navigation through their panoramic tours, now referred to as 'TrailViews.' The team aims to make the final result available to the public by the end of July 2023, and until then, the website will be under construction.