This story has been updated.
On the second day of the federal shutdown, Acadia National Park has barred visitors from driving up the summit road on Cadillac Mountain, but is allowing people to either walk or bike to the top.
The road was open Wednesday, with rangers manning the entrance stations at the bottom of the road and checking to make sure drivers had reservations before they were allowed to proceed. The park implemented the reservation system in 2021 because of vehicle overcrowding at the top of the mountain.
The park plans to reopen the summit road to motor vehicles on Friday, however. A notice of the road’s closure was removed from the park’s website Thursday afternoon, and a spokesperson for the advocacy group Friends of Acadia said rangers will be back at the road’s entrance on Friday morning to verify reservations for visitors who have secured a time slot online to drive to the top.
Park officials have not responded to inquiries about how Acadia is being affected by the shutdown, and whether those conditions may change as the shutdown continues, but posted shutdown-related information late Wednesday on the park’s website.
Parking along the Park Loop Road where it intersects with the summit road at the base of the mountain is not permitted, officials said.
Despite the closure, much of Acadia so far remains open to visitors, whose numbers in the park have been high this year and on Wednesday seemed similar to any other busy summer day at the height of tourist season, which typically stretches from May through October.
The park’s Visitors Center in Hulls Cove was closed Wednesday, but other sites such as the Jordan Pond House, the Thunder Hole gift shop and Sand Beach were open. The park’s campgrounds at Blackwoods, Seawall and Schoodic also remain open.
Friends of Acadia, a nonprofit organization that advocates for and supplements park programs and services, said that the free Island Explorer bus system is expected to still operate throughout the park during the shutdown, as are sites run by outside concession firms, such as Jordan Pond House and Wildwood Stables. The new Acadia Gateway Center in Trenton, which is operated by the state, also will remain open, though it will close at some point for the winter.
As for staffing, the majority of Acadia employees have been furloughed during the shutdown, with exceptions made for a small number of staff deemed “necessary to protect life and property,” Friends of Acadia said. Basic sanitation, law enforcement, fire safety and custodial staff will remain on duty, they said.
The majority of staff, including those who continue to work in the park, will not be paid until the shutdown ends, they said.
Eric Stiles, president and CEO of Friends of Acadia, said that parks across the country already have lost 24% of their staff since President Donald Trump took office in January, and that the shutdown is “discouraging” for Acadia’s employees.
“This is not an efficient or good way to take care of the national parks,” Stiles said. “We urge Congress to pass a spending bill that fully funds national parks, lifts the hiring freeze, and restores staffing levels.”
Friends of Acadia also noted that, despite much of the park remaining open — at least for the time being — the shutdown will have a financial impact on the park and surrounding towns. The park is not collecting entrance fees during the shutdown, which for October 2024 amounted to $1.5 million in revenue for the park. That money is used each year to help fund operations in Acadia, they said.
Plus, Acadia visitors are estimated to have spent more than half a billion dollars in adjacent communities last year, the group said. If the shutdown lingers and more parts of Acadia close before November, when the park’s services usually wind down for the winter, it could discourage visitors from coming to Mount Desert Island and Schoodic Peninsula.
“Disruption to park operations will ripple through surrounding communities,” the group said on its website.
Construction projects in the park, which include employee housing on Kebo Street and a new maintenance building at the park’s headquarters, also will continue during the shutdown, Friends of Acadia said.
The Hulls Cove Visitors Center, which was closed Wednesday, remained closed Thursday, and other sites were closed down as well because of the lack of federal funds. Rockefeller Hall at the Schoodic section of the park on the east side of Frenchman Bay is closed, as is Sieur de Monts Nature Center. The three buildings will remain closed until further notice, park officials said.