The island offers a delicious mixture of settings, and as you travel through say, Chilmark, you will see a number of her settings all in the same eyeful. Turn a corner and you get a vista of rolling fields dampened by small ponds and ending in vast sweep of ocean blue. Look the other way and you see painstakingly erected stone walls vanishing off into the distance, beyond a swaying marshland carrying the island to the sea. Such natural beauty is hard to sufficiently appreciate in such generous doses. Nature and humanity share the island, although in the Up Island area it seems that nature has the upper hand.
Wildlife is ever apparent.
Upon an autumn lane in Chilmark we had to stop our vehicle to allow a quorum of turkeys to cross. More than a fifth of the island is protected from development and there are several sanctuaries and parks you can explore. You may have to pay a nominal parking fee. Even on the hottest summer day, you'll find few people here. Salt marshes, tidal flats, ponds, cedars, barrier beaches, and sand dunes are everywhere.