Things to Do in Mount Desert: Acadia's Quiet Middle

First, the name

Mount Desert is a town. Mount Desert Island is the island, and it contains four towns, of which this is one. Almost every visitor conflates them, and the confusion matters in practice: an address in Northeast Harbor, Seal Harbor, Somesville or Otter Creek is an address in the town of Mount Desert, even though none of those villages carries the town's name on a sign.

It matters for planning too. Our place data has 32 mapped locations inside this town — eight of them with Northeast Harbor addresses, six with Seal Harbor addresses, one in Otter Creek — and they are scattered across roughly ten miles of shoreline with a five-mile inlet cut through the middle. There is no downtown to park in and walk from. If you want the island's whole shape explained first, the Mount Desert Island guide covers how the four towns differ.

Jordan Pond, and how to walk it

The Jordan Pond Path is the best-known thing in the town and it sits well inside the Acadia National Park boundary, despite most people filing it under Bar Harbor. The trailhead rates 4.8 across 569 reviews. The loop runs a little over three miles, is close to level, and crosses long stretches of log bridging over boggy ground on the far shore — that section is slick in rain and slower than a flat three miles suggests.

Walk it counterclockwise if you want the two rounded hills called the Bubbles in front of you for the return leg rather than behind. Bubble Rock, the glacial boulder balanced on the ridge above the pond, rates 4.8 from 378 reviews and is a short, steep climb from the Bubbles parking area rather than from the pond path itself.

A useful comparison for how busy this is: Thunder Hole, twenty minutes away on the Park Loop Road, carries 3,222 reviews to Jordan Pond Path's 569. Review volume is a rough proxy for footfall, not a precise one, but a five-to-one gap is not noise. The pond is the town's busiest place and it is still quieter than the famous coast.

The carriage road bridges

This is the part of Mount Desert that rewards a second visit. The Rockefeller carriage road network runs denser across this town than anywhere else on the island, and its stone bridges are individually mapped, individually named, and almost entirely ignored.

Our data holds eight of them inside the town. The two most visited are Historic Otter Cove Stone Bridge and Causeway (4.8 from 69 reviews) and Jordan Pond Dam Stone Bridge (4.8 from 17). Then the numbers fall off a cliff: Deer Brook Bridge has five reviews, Stanley Brook Bridge four, Cobblestone Bridge one. Amphitheatre, Chasm Brook and Cliffside have none at all.

Those are not bad bridges. They are bridges that require walking or cycling a carriage road to reach, which is the whole point. Pick two, ride out to them, and you will likely have them to yourself on a day when the summit road is at capacity. The Acadia hiking guide covers the trail side; the carriage roads are the cycling half of the same network.

Somes Sound and Acadia Mountain

Somes Sound cuts about five miles into the island and is frequently sold as the only fjord on the eastern seaboard. Geographers generally downgrade it to a fjard — shallower, less steep-walled — which is a distinction that matters to almost nobody standing on the shore looking at it.

What matters is the driving. To cross from one side of the island to the other you go around the head of the sound at Somesville, so trips that look short on a map are not. Build that in.

The Acadia Mountain Trailhead (4.8 from 71 reviews) is the classic short climb on the sound's west wall, giving you the length of the water below. Echo Lake Beach (4.7 from 193) is the freshwater swimming on the same road, and it is the warm option — the open ocean on this coast stays cold enough that most people get in once and call it a day.

Somesville, and three small museums

Somesville is the oldest settlement on the island and the town's practical center, such as it is. The Somesville Museum and Gardens (4.6 from 202 reviews) sits by the much-photographed white footbridge. The Maine Granite Industry Historical Society Museum (5.0 from 132 reviews) is the highest-rated museum in the town and explains where the island's stone went, which turns out to be most of the public buildings on the eastern seaboard. Acadia Repertory Theatre (4.6 from 70) runs a summer season on Main Street, and the Gallery at Somes Sound (4.9 from 18) is the pick of the town's two art galleries.

Seal Harbor and the small beaches

Seal Harbor is the quietest of the villages and keeps a small public beach — Seal Harbor Beach, 4.6 from 94 reviews — that stays usable in August when Sand Beach does not. Little Hunters Beach (4.8 from 100) is the better one, a pocket of smooth cobbles below a staircase off the Park Loop Road; it is not a swimming beach and the stones are legally protected, so leave them. The Lighthouse Restaurant (4.2 from 329) is the village's main dining room and the lowest-rated of the town's five restaurants, which is worth knowing before you drive there specifically.

Northeast Harbor

The town's largest village has a deep marina, the mailboat to the Cranberry Isles, and enough going on to have its own page — see Northeast Harbor. From the town's data set, Asticou Terraces rates 4.9 from 20 reviews and is the quiet alternative to the better-known gardens, a climbing path of stone steps and landings above the harbor.

For food, The Nor'Easter Pound and Market (4.4 from 659 reviews) and Colonel's Restaurant and Bakery (4.4 from 542) are the volume options, Copita (4.5 from 95) the smaller one. Abel's Lobster (4.6 from 1,096) sits on the shore of Somes Sound and is the most-reviewed restaurant in the town by a wide margin.

The honest drawback

There is no supermarket in this town and no real center. Everything is a drive, the drives are longer than they look because of the sound, and the parking areas at Jordan Pond and the Bubbles fill early and stay full. The free Island Explorer shuttle solves most of that in season and is genuinely the better way to reach the pond.

Off-season, close to everything shuts. Between late October and May you get the carriage roads and the views and very little else — which some people want, but go in knowing it. If you would rather be somewhere with a working village around you, Southwest Harbor next door has more restaurants than this entire town, and Bar Harbor has the services.

Frequently asked questions

Is Mount Desert the same as Mount Desert Island?

No. Mount Desert Island is the island; Mount Desert is one of the four towns on it, occupying the middle. The other three are Bar Harbor, Southwest Harbor and Tremont. The town of Mount Desert contains the villages of Northeast Harbor, Seal Harbor, Somesville, Otter Creek, Pretty Marsh and Hall Quarry, which is why you will rarely see the town's own name on an address.

What is there to do in Mount Desert besides Jordan Pond?

Plenty, and most of it is quieter. Climb Acadia Mountain above Somes Sound, swim at Echo Lake, cycle the carriage roads to the stone bridges, visit the Somesville Museum and Gardens or the Maine Granite Industry museum, and walk the Asticou Terraces above Northeast Harbor. Little Hunters Beach and Seal Harbor Beach are the two small shore stops on the eastern side.

Where should you stay in Mount Desert?

The two campgrounds are the value option: Mount Desert Campground rates 4.7 from 455 reviews on the head of Somes Sound, and Blackwoods Campground, the park's own, rates 4.5 from 461. Hotels here are limited and lean expensive, so most visitors base in Bar Harbor or Southwest Harbor and drive in. Book either campground well ahead for July and August.

Is Mount Desert quieter than Bar Harbor?

Substantially, outside of Jordan Pond. Bar Harbor has cruise ship traffic, the busiest section of the Park Loop Road, and the island's restaurant and hotel density. Mount Desert has villages of a few dozen buildings each. The trade-off is real: fewer crowds, but also fewer places to eat, no supermarket, and longer drives to reach anything.