Like any self-respecting national park, Acadia boasts the expected wildlands—foggy coasts and granite domes that stare down at the islands of Penobscot Bay—but unlike any other park, it offers rather unexpected fishing villages, old-money carriage roads, lighthouses, and clapboard lobster pounds where you can belly up to a picnic table and down a fresh "spider" on the spot. Indeed, it's the ability to shuttle so seamlessly between New England wilds and Yankee civility that makes Acadia unique. You don't come away with a run-of-the-mill campground experience; you come away with a slice of traditional Maine life.

GAME PLAN: Twin-lobed Mount Desert Island represents the vast majority of Acadia's territory and is best taken from the top. Bag the twin peaks of Acadia (681 feet) and St. Sauveur (679 feet) on a 5.5-mile loop from the Acadia Mountain trailhead. Views are rewarding: You'll look down into Somes Sound (a fjord, unless you're a nitpicker or a Norwegian nationalist) and across to the spruce-topped Cranberry Isles—and you can take a dip in chilly Echo Lake. On your second day, join National Park Sea Kayak Tours for a paddle of ultraquiet Blue Hill or Western Bay and work your way around harbor seals, porpoises, and uninhabited islands. Finally, spend a day biking the 12-mile Mountain Loop Trail, a carriage road route that begins at Jordan Pond, and cap off the afternoon with a popover at Jordan Pond House. What could be more New England?

ULTIMATE BASE CAMP: Acadia has no official park lodge, but the Claremont Hotel in Southwest Harbor is a great surrogate. The converted waterfront mansion at the mouth of Somes Sound is rich in Yankee flourishes like tournament croquet courts and a covered front porch, plus guests can commandeer rowboats or bikes ($203; theclaremonthotel.com).

VITALS: Seven-day entry pass, $20. Campsites, $20 (nps.gov/acad). National Park Sea Kayak Tours leads half-day paddles for $48 (acadiakayak.com). Bar Harbor Bicycle Shop rents rigs for $21 a day (barharborbike.com).

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