it’s 4.5 hours north of Boston by car, and, surprisingly, still a 3 hour drive once you hit Portland, Maine — but once you arrive on Mount Desert Island it becomes surprisingly accessible, in ways both familiar and new.

Arcadia is the only U.S. national park that’s as famous for pampering visitors as it is for scenic vistas and natural wonders. The 47,000-acre park remains the model of convenience envisioned by John D. Rockefeller Jr. when he built 45 miles of carriage roads between 1913 and 1940 that allowed him to easily roam Arcadia on horseback. It also doesn’t hurt that the park entrance is little more than a mile from the town of Bar Harbor, and that many areas of Arcadia can be reached via a large, efficient, and free public bus system.

Rockefeller’s brilliantly designed network of roads and beautiful arched bridges is still traveled by cars, horses, mountain bikes, hikers, and cross-country skiers, as well as the carriages it was built for. Wildwood Stables, based near the park’s famous Jordan Pond, offers one- and two-hour carriage tours of the park, including a special excursion to the summit of Day Mountain. In 2024, the stable added a wheelchair accessible carriage fitted with a ramp, thanks to a gift from the Diana Davis Spencer Foundation to Friends of Acadia.

None of which is to say that Arcadia lacks for challenges. Some visitors may opt for noshing popover ice cream sundaes at the Jordan Pond House or lounging at Sand Beach, but the park’s 150 miles of hiking trails can also take visitors from sea level to the summit of 1,530-foot Cadillac Mountain on some surprisingly challenging trails, including a few that more resemble mountaineering than hiking. The Precipice Trail, for example, gains over 1,000 feet in elevation in less than a mile, and includes traversing open cliff faces aided by iron rungs for handholds. Those who overcome their fear of heights, however, are rewarded by spectacular views of Frenchman’s Bay.

A day of hiking or biking in Arcadia earns a good meal and a cold drink, both of which Bar Harbor provides in abundance. With its walkable downtown centered on a classic New England village green, and Agamont Park providing unfettered vistas of the bay, tall ships, ferries, and islands, Bar Harbor also provides a little adventure of its own.

Every day at low tide, the waters of Frenchman’s Bay recede enough to reveal a gravel bar connecting Mount Desert Island to Bar Island, just offshore. For a few hours, this temporary land bridge stays high enough to permit a circuit of the 1.9-mile Bar Island Trail, but don’t dilly-dally: if the tide comes in before you can cross back over again it’s a nine hour wait for the next ebb.

The Bar Harbor Inn, built in 1887, offers a taste of Rockefellian elegance on the Bar Harbor waterfront; the Terrace Grille is well worth a summer splurge for lunch or dinner. Nearby is the dock for the town’s resident windjammer, the schooner Margaret Todd, which departs on sunset cruises every day from mid-May to October, weaving through the lobster traps dotting the bay to the Egg Rock Lighthouse and back.

Lobsters, of course, are the chief culinary crustaceans of Maine. It’s almost as easy to lose track of how many Bar Harbor restaurants have lobster on the menu (nearly all of them) as it is to count out the cash needed to buy a lobster roll. Locals will tell you this tourist town isn’t the place to find a bargain, although many say the Travelin’ Lobster offers the best ounce-for-ounce deal on the island.

Bar Harbor’s bars and restaurants compete with souvenir shops in terms of sheer numbers, but a few places stand out. The Dog and Pony Tavern has a low-key outdoor bar on a side street that’s relatively quiet even during the height of summer, while the dog-friendly Side Street Cafe has a long and affordable menu of interesting sandwiches and macaroni-and-cheese variations. Cafe This Way is an adorable breakfast spot with a garden setting, egg scrambles, and Bloody Marys; for a rainy day, Reel Pizza has two screens of movies and a creative pizza menu that also can be enjoyed on an outdoor patio if it’s too sunny outside to hole up in the theater.

After a day spent biking the carriage roads of Arcadia we find ourselves drawn to the promise of a cocktail and live music on the lawn of the Ivy Manor Inn, where Adirondack chairs are arrayed around fire pits to ward off the evening chill. It proves to be the perfect spot to sit back and consider possibilities for tomorrow in Bar Harbor: Whale watching tour? Sea kayaking? Drive the 27-mile park loop road in Arcadia?

We hear that the top of Cadillac Mountain is the place to be to catch the sunrise, but how to get up there? Drive the road to the summit? That requires a reservation in advance. Hike it? That’s a really early wakeup, and requires a headlamp. We settle on the $20 Cadillac Mountain Shuttle Service: not the more strenuous choice, perhaps, but cheap and convenient. In other words, Arcadia National Park at its accessible best.

For more information visit: https://www.nps.gov/acad/index.htm