介绍：Like other stretches of heaven on earth, much of the idyllic Maine coast has been bought up over the years by the well-to-do, who've fenced it off for their own private use. It's ironic, then, that in the case of Mount Desert Island, Americans owe a debt of gratitude to some rich folks who put the common good above their own interests, and handed this lovely island over to the public domain.

When French explorers began arriving in the early 17th century, they found the island inhabited by the Wabanaki Indians. Samuel Champlain, noting its barren, rocky summits, named it ‘Monts Desert’. France and England vied for the island for the next 200 years; somewhere along the line its name became a linguistic hybrid, written in English but pronounced with a French accent, making it sound like ‘dessert’.

By mid-19th century, it began to gain fame for its beauty. Painters of the Hudson River School arrived, creating works that led their rich patrons to blaze a path to Mount Desert, to see the simple life for themselves. In time, the Rockefellers, Astors, Fords, Vanderbilts, and their fellow ‘rusticators’ founded a summer colony, building elegant estates they referred to as ‘cottages’. Among the wealthy bunch was one George B. Dorr, who in 1901 began buying up land in the area, eventually turning over thousands of acres to the federal government. In 1929, the U.S. set aside much of that land as Acadia National Park. The park today totals 35,000 acres of craggy grandeur, covered with lush fir and spruce forests, dotted with lakes and surrounded by great opportunities for offshore whale-watching.

The timeless serenity of the island is tested by the ever-increasing number of visitors—the 27-mile Park Loop Road, for instance, one of the most picturesque drives in America, attracts big crowds in summer. But avoiding traffic is easy enough. In 1917, when John D. Rockefeller Jr. became unhappy with the arrival of the noisy automobile on the island, he began work on the 57-mile network of bridge-linked carriage roads that today offer some of the nation’s loveliest car-free walking and bicycling, and become a splendid network of cross-country ski trails in winter. Hiking trails cross the island, offering great views and demanding only moderate effort. Most visitors, however, will need a car to watch the sunrise from Cadillac Mountain, a park tradition. At 1,530 feet the highest peak on the U.S. Atlantic coast, this is the spot where America catches its first rays of the morning sun.

Plan to arrive at Jordan Pond House on the Park Loop Road in time for late-afternoon tea and popovers (the American version of Yorkshire pudding) on the restaurant’s front lawn. Rusticate overnight at the Claremont Hotel and Cottages, sitting grandly on six shorefront acres since 1869. Grab a chair on the porch for poetry-inspiring views of the Somes Sound.