In late fall, Mount Desert Island is a paradise for reverent ramblers. There are more than 47,000 acres of mountains, woodlands, ocean shoreline, and lakes, with 125 miles of hiking trails and 45 miles of carriage roads. The hiking trails are marked with stone cairns and hand-carved stone steps. John D. Rockefeller Jr. built the carriage roads between 1913 and 1940. In the summer a couple million visitors swarm all over the park. For those seeking it, solitude can be found on the west side, the “quiet side of the island,’’ but most of the park’s attractions are around the high mountain and dramatic shoreline of the east side.
By early November most of the island’s tourist attractions have shut down for winter. No more fudge, dream catchers, or plush lobsters. Soon, the ground will freeze, and the scarlet and bronze will disappear from the hills. But for the next few weeks, the park can be a place of stillness and quiet beauty. Now is the time to slow down and walk for pleasure, to enjoy the waning of the sweet season, the last sights - the purple of the New England asters in bloom, the merry honking of Canada geese flying south, and the winterberry shrubs heavy with red fruit.
From Little Long Pond I drive north through the park and into the town of Bar Harbor. Mount Desert Island has always been a haven for summer visitors. Native Americans called it Pemetic (translated as “the sloping land’’ or “mountains seen at a distance’’). They would have seen the mountains from their birch bark canoes as they paddled down the tidal rivers headed toward summer fishing and food gathering places on the island.
In 1604 the explorer Samuel De Champlain called the area Isles des Monts Deserts - Islands of Bare Topped Mountains. Later came the landscape painters, then the rusticators, and then the cottagers - all the big names of the time: Astor, Pendleton, Vanderbilt, Ford, Rockefeller. Many of the cottagers settled in Bar Harbor.
