âª pleasant music
The scenic views of Acadia National Park are unparalleled with majestic mountains, stunning
sunrises and sunsets, fog-blanketed islands, stormy seas, and inspiring night skies.
Acadia offers visitors many ways to enjoy the landscape.
They can experience the ocean,
forests, crystal clear lakes as well as the magnificent carriage roads and the hiking trails.
To be able to go for a bike ride or a hike or to watch for birds, Acadia is filled with
these amazing experiences.
The historic Park Loop Road and Schoodic Loop Road, with their iconic granite coping stones,
provide incredible views of the parkâs landscape and the sea.
The views are designed and intentional to make sure you can see them whether itâs in a pull out
along the shore or along a bike ride in the carriage roads so you can the mountains behind the lake.
Through all these experiences, visitors can connect to nature, seek adventure,
learn, and rejuvenate.
There are still opportunities to find solitude within Acadia National Park even on a busy August day.
But with increasing visitation, itâs becoming harder to find these opportunities.
Crowds of visitors in the summer and, increasingly, into the fall and spring, are making it difficult
for people to experience the best of Acadia. Crowded conditions in the park also cause safety hazards.
We deal with people who are walking, bicycle use, we also have people or large vehicles
slow down to take a look at the scenery.
It makes it very challenging to be a first responder responding to an incident.
[sirens]
During the parkâs busiest times, people may not even be able to visit their favorite
spot at all.
Parking lots at popular attractions, like Sand Beach, often fill to capacity.
Full parking lots also affect the local communities that are integral to Acadia, as park visitors
park along state and town roads seeking to access the park.
The same roads that connect the towns and villages of Mount Desert Island connect park lands.
Because of this, transportation issues within the park often affect residents as well.
For instance, Eagle Lake Road is a main thoroughfare that connects the village of Bar Harbor to
the west side of Mount Desert Island.
When the Eagle Lake parking lot fills to capacity, visitors park along the shoulder of Eagle
Lake Road, causing safety concerns and impacts to the infrastructure and scenery.
People who live near the park love many of the same parts of the park that visitors do.
Local residents cherish their access to this national treasure, but road congestion and
parking challenges have affected the way neighbors use the park.
The park plays a critical role in the state and regional economy by attracting visitors
to the area each year.
These visitors rely on local communities for shopping, dining, and places to stay.
Acadia National Park has a great positive impact on the local communities.
In 2016 visitor spending created a 330 million dollar economic benefit to the area that helped
support 4,200 jobs.
Increases in visitors to Acadia bring economic benefits but also stress the parkâs infrastructure.
Increasing pressure on Acadiaâs transportation network is affecting the way people interact
with and benefit from park resources.
The purpose of the transportation plan is to look at a variety of alternatives that
will ultimately ensure that we provide a really high quality experience for our visitors,
while preserving the magnificent resources of Acadia National Park.
To learn more and provide comments on Acadiaâs Transportation Plan please visit the National
Park Serviceâs website at http://go.nps.gov/AcadiaPlan