Christie Anastasia, a spokeswoman for the National Park Service, said the price of a parking reservation would be separate from the park entrance fee. The price of reservations has not been decided yet but would probably be less than $10, she said.

The plan calls for drivers to use a “timed-entry reservation system” to alleviate congestion on Cadillac Mountain, the Ocean Drive corridor, and the Jordan Pond north lot during the peak season, which runs from June to October, according to the National Park Service.

In an effort to deal with overcrowding, a new vehicle reservation system for Acadia National Park is in the works.


“We’re hoping that there will be an app that people can pull up,” to make reservations on their phones, she said.

The earliest this new reservation system would be put into place would be 2020, and many details need to be worked out, she said.

Once the new system is implemented, motorists would be able to make reservations as early as four months in advance. Blocks of reservations would also be kept open 48 hours in advance to accommodate visitors making last-minute plans.

Park officials said the timed reservation system would be used for parking at the Jordan Pond north lot and for vehicle access to Cadillac Summit Road and the Ocean Drive corridor. During the initial implementation, other Acadia parking lots would continue to be managed on a first-come, first-served basis.

“We’re just talking about three areas, slowly phased in over time,” she said. “The park is much bigger than those three areas.”

Acadia National Park encompasses more than 37,000 acres on the coast of Maine, and it’s proved to be a popular destination for locals and tourists. The National Park Service said that annual visitation to Acadia National Park grew by 59 percent between 2007 and 2017, and there were 3.5 million visits recorded in 2017 alone. The most popular spots include Cadillac Mountain, sites along the Ocean Drive corridor, and Jordan Pond, officials said.


This reservation system is just one part of the National Park Service’s final transportation plan for the park, which was released Monday, the Portland Press Herald reported.

Officials said the hefty document was the culmination of a planning effort that began in 2015. Other aspects of the plan include expanding the Island Explorer shuttle bus service, providing additional parking at Hulls Cove, and building a new visitors’ center at Hulls Cove, among other things.

“It’s the blueprint for the future,” Anastasia said.

While some have expressed concerns about the plan, Anastasia said everyone seems to agree that congestion in the park is a problem and “something needs to be done.”

The changes won’t happen overnight, and park officials estimate that it will take up to a decade or more to make all of the features of the sweeping plan a reality.

“It’s going to take years to implement,” she said. “There are still a lot of conversations we need to have between here and there.”

Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @emilysweeney.