A good way to start your exploration is to ascend the open summit of Blue Hill, from which you'll gain superb views of the bay and the bald mountaintops on nearby Mount Desert Island. To reach the trail head from the center of the village, drive north on Route 172 about 1 1/2 miles, then turn west (left) on Mountain Road at the Blue Hill Fairgrounds. Drive another 3/4 mile and look for the well-marked trail; park on the shoulder of the road. The fairly easy ascent is about a mile, and takes about 45 minutes. Bring a picnic lunch.
Blue Hill has traditionally attracted more than its fair share of artists, especially potters. On Union Street, stop by Rowantrees Pottery (tel. 207/374-5535), which has been a Blue Hill institution for more than half a century. Another inventive shop, the family-run Rackliffe Pottery (tel. 888/631-3321 or 207/374-2297), on Route 172 (Ellsworth Road), uses native clay and lead-free glazes. Visitors are welcome to watch the potters at work. Both shops are open year-round.
Even if you're not given to swooning over historic homes, you owe yourself a visit to the intriguing Parson Fisher House (tel. 207/374-2459; www.jonathanfisherhouse.org), on routes 176 and 15, a half-mile west of the village. Fisher, Blue Hill's first permanent minister, was a small-town-Maine version of a Renaissance man when he settled here in 1796. Educated at Harvard, Fisher not only delivered sermons in six different languages (including Aramaic), but was also a writer, painter, and inventor of boundless energy. On a tour of his home, which he built himself in 1814, you can see a clock with wooden works he fashioned, as well as books he wrote, published, and bound by hand (all by himself). The house is open from July to mid-September, Thursday through Saturday from 1 to 4pm. Admission is by donation; $5 per person is suggested.
