Here’s the iconic, high-summer view of Mount Desert Island (MDI) from Amen Ridge in Brooklin. You’ll have to imagine the capricious breezes that carried hints of salt and balsam fir toward the camera. The lupine flowers in the field have dried up in their fuzzy way, but the grasses and sedges there are still green and munchy for our white-tailed residents. A sea haze has turned the placid Blue Hill and Jericho Bays slate blue, while restless cumulus clouds roam northeast (to the left) over MDI’s hunched western mountains.
MDI is Maine’s largest island and is accessible by bridge. Most of Acadia National Park is on the island, which is otherwise ornamented with Down East towns and villages that are popular with tourists, including Bar Harbor, Bass Harbor/Tremont, Mount Desert/Somesville, Northeast Harbor, Seal Harbor, and Southwest Harbor. (Image taken in Brooklin, Maine, on July 21, 2025.)