Visitors may soon need reservations before exploring some of the most popular areas in Maine’s Acadia National Park.
On Monday, park officials unveiled plans to address the problem of increased congestion in the park during the peak tourism season.
Thunder Hole at Acadia National Park. (Acadia National Park Facebook Photo)
The proposal calls for implementing a “timed-entry reservation system,” which would require drivers to get reservations before being able to enter such popular places as Cadillac Summit Road, Jordan Pond’s north lot or the 1.8-mile stretch of Park Loop Road/Ocean Drive between Sand Beach and the Fabbri picnic area.
Drivers would need to get the reservations during the peak tourism season between mid-June and mid-October.
Sunrise on Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park. (Paul VanDerWerf/Flickr Photo)
The plan also calls for a reservation fee of $10 or less. The fee would be used to cover the expenses of running the system and to support the Island Explorer bus service that provides free transportation to visitors in the park.
The National Park Service’s regional director is expected to approve the plan.
According to an article on PressHerald.com, the reservation system could be in place as early as 2020, but other aspects of the plan could take up to a decade to implement.