Isles be seeing you (continued)

Mount Desert Island

Mount Desert Island (pronounced "dessert," with a nod to its French origins) offers many of the same Mainiac aspects, but you might have to search a little harder for solitude -- this island is connected by bridge to the mainland, and its acreage is split between bustling resort towns and a national park with the highest peak on the Atlantic coast (Mount Cadillac, at 1530 feet). Acadia National Park is the third largest in the country, and it encompasses 17 mountains, 26 freshwater lakes, and the only true fjord on the East Coast, Somes Sound. To get your bearings on the enormousness of it all, you might want to drive the 20-mile Park Loop Road, with stops at Thunder Hole, a deep rock crevice where the surf booms in; the Wild Gardens of Acadia, where native plants are conveniently labeled; the Abbe Museum, filled with Native American artifacts; and a side trip up Cadillac Mountain, a bit of a cheating way to get there, but well worth the views along the way and at the summit.

In addition to roads that bring you to quiet fishing villages, all-but-hidden coves and icy-water beaches, Acadia has 45 miles of "carriage roads" for biking (and skiing) and 120 miles of hiking trails that go over and under 17 remarkable stone bridges. For an easy introduction to mountain climbing, try Acadia Mountain (three miles south of Somesville on Route 102), a two-mile roundtrip to its peak at 681 feet. This trail is on the western or "quiet" side of Mount Desert Island, where you might meet a handful (instead of a bus full) of other hikers. The path winds slowly up through birch and pine before a quick ascent to ledges overlooking Echo Lake. Another moderate trail is up 1068-foot Champlain Mountain (off the Park Loop, look for the Bear Brook Trail). This is one of those climbs where you find yourself pausing to look back every few yards, as the sailboats on Frenchman Bay grow tinier and tinier.

Away from the awe-inspiring splendor of Mount Desert's mountains, the island's largest town of Bar Harbor offers shops and restaurants, movie houses and theaters, along with the Natural History Museum at the College of the Atlantic; the Bar Harbor Historical Society (the town's history through photographs, paintings, and books); several places to rent canoes, kayaks, or bikes; and several whale-watching companies. Over in Northeast Harbor, the Asticou Terraces, Thuya Garden, and Thuya Lodge, all connected with the early-20th-century landscape artist Joseph Henry Curtis, are lovely examples of the taming of nature, in stark contrast to the mountains and ocean surrounding them. Southwest Harbor has its own attractions, including more than 200 bird carvings at the Wendell Gilley Museum and 20 tanks of sea life at the Oceanarium. It's obvious that Mount Desert Island holds far more than a day's worth of adventures, but if you're as far "downeast" as Ellsworth, you should drive over on Route 3 to do the Park Loop -- it's not just "dessert," it's the whole meal.

Johnette Rodriguez can be reached at jr@netsense.net.