Acadia National Park reports that it set a new record for visitors over Indigenous Peoples' Day weekend.
The previous peak daily visitation record had been during the Fourth of July holiday in 2022, when more than 3,500 vehicles passed through the Sand Beach entrance station at the head of Ocean Drive.
The Park reports that on Sunday, October 13, 2024, more than 3,600 hundred vehicles were registered at the station.
Park spokesperson Amanda Pollock says traffic congestion was a problem on Saturday because it was very windy, and people were car-touring and not parking and getting out of their cars.
"We had a similar number of vehicles go through Sand Beach location on Saturday versus Sunday. But the conditions on that stretch of road were very different on those two days. On Saturday it was so congested that we had to shut down the Sand Beach entrance for an hour and a half. On Sunday it was a free-flowing day," Pollock said.
Pollock said they tried a pilot reservation program for the Sand Beach entrance on Ocean Drive, but it didn't work well. They are considering a reservation system at Jordan Pond and other popular spots, similar to the one to go to the summit of Cadillac Mountain.
Pollock said that system works really well.
Park Social Scientist Dr. Sam Gibson said the reservation system to go to the summit of Cadillac Mountain has increased the number of visitors who visit the summit without a car.
"We've seen that with the creation of the reservation system that hiking to the summit has at least doubled in that time. So, we're seeing twice as many hikers now after the reservation system was implemented than we had before," Gibson said.
Gibson said that more than 2,700 hikers were on the Beehive and Precipice trails that Sunday, an unusually high number for October and evidence of increased visitation in the shoulder seasons.
The challenge with that, Pollock said, is that some park infrastructure like restrooms is not built for late fall conditions.