Acadia National Park To Raise Usage Fees May 1st

Looks like the cost of enjoying the great outdoors will be going up next month at Acadia National Park.

Recently reported in the BDN Acadia park planner John Kelly says fees to hike will increase depending on your park usage from $5 to $20. The changes are part of a system wide adjustment for all National Park properties. Some fees went down and some went up depending on the property. He added, at Acadia the purpose of the increase is to help offset increasing expenses for the park.

In their arraignment with the National Park Service Acadia keeps 80 percent of revenues and the rest goes to them.

The breakdown locally he added is that all revenues from entrance and camping fees will stay with the National Park Service. The vast majority of it will go toward funding operations in Acadia and local transportation services such as the Island Explorer bus system and the ferry service between Stonington and Isle Au Haut, where Acadia owns and maintains 2,700 acres of woodland and rocky shoreline.

The fee schedule:

• For most tourists who visit Acadia from out of state, the fee increase will be less than $10.
• Seven-day passes for day users (the park does not sell passes for less than a week) will increase from $20 to $25 for each vehicle.
• Motorcyclists will be issued separate passes that will cost $20.
• Week long passes for visitors who enter on foot or by bicycle will increase from $5 to $12. P
• Annual passes good for the entire season (May 1 through Oct. 31) will face an increase from $40 to $50.
• Walk-in campers will see an increase from $14 to $22 per person per night
• Campers with vehicles will go up from $20 to $30.
• Recreation vehicles with electric or water hookups will have to pay a nightly rate of up to $40 up from the $20 they have been charged.

My opinion it is still a good deal and I realize that they are making upgrades and paying Mainers. I’m still going to go every chance I get.