Visitors to Acadia National Park will at some point be required to make a reservation for their car to visit certain popular sites, such as Cadillac Mountain. For those who can’t get a reservation, the park plans to expand public transit.
According to the park’s transportation plan released Monday, the reservation system would also be required for those who want to park at the Jordan Pond House.
Park spokesperson Christie Anastasia says the new plan, which has been years in the making, is intended to provide more certainty for visitors.
“You’ve got a reservation. You know when you can arrive there. And you know when you get there, you’re going to have a parking spot,” she says.
Currently, visitors trying to drive to the summit of Cadillac at sunrise may be in one of 400 cars competing for 150 parking spots.
Anastasia says visitors can also still use other lots in the park that will initially continue to be first-come, first-served.
“There’s parking lots that are off of the Park Loop Road system that people use to hop off their car and hop on their bicycle or walk in. So I think folks will figure out the best way to get into the park when they want to get here,” she says.
Anastasia says that any new changes would begin in 2020, at the earliest, and likely take up to a decade or more to implement fully.
The number of visitors to Acadia has soared in recent years to 3.5 million in 2017.
