Acadia National Park staff are working on a plan to improve traffic management/NPS

In an effort to protect resources and make it easier for visitors to explore their park, Acadia National Park staff is proposing a reservation system for vehicle entry to some areas of the park during the busy summer season, from roughly mid-May through mid-October.

Like many national parks across the country, visitors flock to Acadia in ever-growing crowds, at some times diminishing the experience due to congestion on roadways and crowds at popular sites in the coastal Maine park. The transportation plan Acadia officials are developing seeks to find a middle ground.

Under the draft plan open for public comment through June 26, "private vehicles would continue to be able to travel the entire Park Loop Road, not including the Ocean Drive corridor, as they do under the no-action alternative. Reservations for private vehicles would be needed to park at Jordan Pond House, for vehicle access to Cadillac Summit Road, or to proceed past the Sand Beach Entrance Station to the Ocean Drive corridor. Elsewhere along Park Loop Road, in areas not serviced by the reservation system, parking lots would be managed on a first-come, first-served basis."

"The timed-entry system would provide reservation holders with a specific time window during which their vehicle would be permitted to enter the corridor or parking lot," the draft further explains. "Once inside the corridor or parking lot, there would be no restrictions on length of stay. The length of the initial entry window may be lengthened or shortened as park managers work to optimize the reservation system; however, it is estimated that initial timed-entry windows would be in 15-minute to 2-hour time blocks."

Acadia is not the only national park struggling to handle crowds. Zion National Park officials in Utah are working on their own crowd-management plan, and it also could include a reservation system. Yellowstone National Park officials in Wyoming last year opened a nearly 1-acre gravel parking area near the Fairy Falls Trail in a bid to reduce illegal parking along the road shoulders. Yosemite National Park staff in California not only have worked to improve parking in the Yosemite Valley, but this year is experimenting with an approach to pace and send vehicles to the Arch Rock Entrance Station.

“The Draft Transportation Plan creates a blueprint for our future so we can continue to provide high quality experiences for our visitors while protecting the fundamental qualities that make Acadia so special,” said Acadia Superintendent Kevin Schneider. “While we have identified a preferred alternative as a focal point to encourage public comments, it is not set in stone. We welcome feedback on the Draft Transportation Plan, particularly new information and new ideas.”

A reservation system is being proposed to manage traffic at Acadia National Park/NPS

For Acadia visitors who have grown accustomed to parking in the right-lane of Ocean Drive, that practice slowly would be phased out under the proposed plan, as the park's 1992 General Management Plan stated.

"The long-term goal of the National Park Service is to remove right lane parking from the Ocean Drive corridor to restore a driving experience that more closely resembles the road’s original design intent and to improve safety by providing an additional travel lane for bicyclists and slow-moving vehicles," the draft plan said. "During initial implementation of the plan, the right lane of the Park Loop Road would continue to serve as overflow parking for up to 400 vehicles on busy days. Over a period of several years the number of right lane parking spaces would be reduced to approximately 128 spaces in the Ocean Drive corridor and approximately 30 spaces near the Precipice trailhead. While most of these remaining spaces would eventually be phased out as alternatives of right lane parking are developed, they would be painted to physically demarcate driving lane shifts and parallel parking spaces."

Depending on the final approach adopted, more parking areas could be developed in the park near the Jordan Pond House and a "queuing lane and reservation validation gate" might be required at the bottom of the Cadillac Summit Road.

You can find the draft management plan, and comment on it, at this site.