Acadia National Park

Who really does manage most national park lodgings? For the big operations in places such as Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Glacier, and Shenandoah, corporations. Not surprisingly, while many of the 500 management contracts administered by the National Park Service, such as providing firewood or operating a bicycle rental operation, are relatively straightforward, those for large commercial facilities such as lodging in Yosemite or Yellowstone are extremely complicated. David and Kay Scott bring some clarity to this issue in their latest article pertaining to lodging in the National Park System.

Volcanics, no solar eclipse, and wildfires no doubt all played a role in the decline of visitation to the National Park System in 2018, when slightly more than 318 million visits were recorded, a drop of 13 million from the year before.

Lands on Mount Desert Island that were the precursor to today’s Acadia National Park have been protected by the federal government since 1916. That is why the park celebrated its Centennial in 2016. But on February 26, the park will mark an important milestone in the process that resulted in what millions of visitors enjoy today.

Early spring visitors to Acadia National Park could encounter some traffic delays near Northeast Harbor and Somes Sound as crews work to remove trees deemed to be hazardous along Sargeant Drive.