- Acadia National Park — Mount Desert Island’s walking and hiking options are dominated by its amazing national park, which spreads across the length of the island. At 30,200 acres just on Mount Desert Island, there are many miles of trails to explore, 26 mountains to summit, and lots of craggy coastline and beaches to check out. But there are other preserves on the island, many of them less crowded than the park.
- Blue Horizons, Bar Harbor — In under a mile, you can walk to a serene cobble beach, which if you’re lucky, you’ll have all to yourself. The preserve is 82 acres, and includes a couple of lived-in seasonal cottages.
- Blagden Preserve at Indian Point, Bar Harbor— A popular Nature Conservancy preserve, the trails here take you through a forest and an old apple orchard to an interesting shoreline, with bedrock outcroppings and two small gravel beaches.
- Kittredge Brook Forest Preserve, Bar Harbor — At 522 acres, and abutting park land, this Maine Coast Heritage Trust preserve offers about five miles of trails through forest, to the edges of wetlands, and to a highish outcropping with views over treetops. The trails do cross the high school’s wastewater dispersal area, and the high school also doesn’t allow dogs on its grounds.
- Acadian Ridge Trail, Bar Harbor — A 2-mile, there-and-back trail through woods and over lichen-covered ledge linking Norway Drive with Acadian Woods Road.
- Shore Path, Bar Harbor — A 0.8-mile gravel trail right in downtown, squeezed between seaside cottages and the lovely views of the Narrows.
- Pray’s Brook Marsh, Bar Harbor — A 0.1-mile trail takes you to a viewing area over the marsh.
- Kelley Farm, Bernard — A former 10-acre saltwater farm now has a big fenced-in communal garden and mown walkways that lead you to a knoll with a picnic table and view of the nearby hills.
- Babson Creek Preserve, Somesville — The site of a Maine Coast Heritage office, this 36-preserve includes trails through meadows and to the edge of a tidal creek.
- Hunters Cliffs Trail, Mount Desert — Gorgeous. A 1.3-mile trail to a cobblestone beach and views along a high cliff. Just south of the park, the trail shares a parking area and trailhead with Day Mountain.
- Eliot Mountain and Little Long Pond Natural Lands, Mount Desert — The Land & Garden Presrve’s trail system here links up to the park’s trail system. Eliot Mountain is a short hike with nice but not spectacular views.
- Somes-Meynell Wildlife Sanctuary, Mount Desert — A 250-acre sanctuary protects the quiet, mostly undeveloped Somes Pond. Two short trail systems allow you to explore the pond edge and a nearby wetland.
- Alfred Butler Memorial Trail, Tremont — A half-mile footpath brings you around a solar field and along a tidal creek.
- Northeast Harbor Trails — This forested trail system abuts Norumbega Mountain and the paths aorund Lower Hadlock Pond. There are no spectacular ocean views from these quiet trails but they do offer solitude. The area here is hilly and some parts of the trails are rooty and rocky.
- Stone Barn Farm — You can explore 128 acres of a former farm, checking out the rolling fields, marshy saltwater creek, and old farm structures. The trails are mostly easy, with just one steep hill near the creek that can be avoided by using an alternate path.