Category Archives: Features

Features about Acadia National Park.

Amid funding crisis at NPS, Acadia sees cuts, bad behavior

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Acadia National Park is overflowing with a near-record number visitors again this summer, but a hiring freeze and funding crisis at the NPS during the Trump administration left the Maine park short-staffed this summer and struggling to stop bad behaviors by visitors.

Graffiti off the Great Meadow Loop in Acadia National Park.

Hikers probably frown when they see this graffiti off the Great Meadow Loop in Acadia National Park. The vandalism was widespread at this location on Sept. 1 including graffiti on several boulders and a wooden bridge.

According to a little-noticed report by the National Park Service, Acadia has seen a nearly 30 percent decrease in seasonal staffing levels over the past decade, with a lack of affordable summer housing a key factor. People said they rarely see rangers on the trails or carriage roads, while some said the staff is overburdened with emergencies and other visitor services like fee collections and providing information at a new welcome center in Trenton.

The National Park Service in Washington did not respond to our detailed questions via email, but did issue a statement.

“The National Park Service continually evaluates staffing and budget needs at Acadia National Park to ensure we can meet our core mission of protecting resources and providing safe, high-quality experiences for visitors,” the statement said. “While we don’t have specifics to share, Acadia National Park remains committed to using resources responsibly and prioritizing essential services that support visitor safety and the long-term stewardship of the park.”

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Paths in Acadia National Park offer hike through history

One in a series of historic Acadia hiking trail highlights

Travel along two of the oldest paths in Acadia National Park, from Asticou to Jordan Pond, and step through history, starting at the Map House in Northeast Harbor and ending at a plaque off Jordan Pond that honors a modern-day couple’s contributions to Acadia trails forever.

Map House

Map House, where novelist Willa Cather and many others have stopped to rest

We were inspired to make this 7-mile round-trip hike along the Asticou & Jordan Pond Path and the Jordan Pond Path by a recent talk about Acadia’s historic trails by Gary Stellpflug, retired Acadia National Park trails crew foreman.

Begin at the Asticou & Jordan Pond Path, a woodland path that starts outside the park at the Map House across from the Asticou Inn. The Map House, located in the Mount Desert Land & Garden Preserve, is a pavilion constructed in the village of Asticou by the late Charles K. Savage, in 1938, according to historic documents in the Northeast Harbor Library’s digital archives. Former longtime owner and manager of the Asticou Inn, Savage was also “creator and original designer of both the Asticou Azalea Garden and Thuya Garden,” according to the website of the Land & Garden Preserve, which runs the gardens.

Willa Cather, the early 20th century novelist who spent some summers in the 1940s, staying at the Asticou Inn, loved stopping for a rest at the Map House, per the Northeast Harbor Library’s digital archives. Savage built the Map House “at his own expense and on his own land for the use of all walkers and passers-by,” according to the library’s digital archives.

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Hidden gem in Acadia National Park just off Kane Path

Gary Stellpflug says he is not sure when he first noticed the flat-topped granite rock off Kane Path in Acadia National Park, but he knew right away that it was not just any other boulder and more likely an undiscovered hidden gem in Acadia National Park.

People on granite bench off Kane Path in Acadia National Park

We were thrilled to discover the Kane Path granite bench, a hidden gem in Acadia National Park, with Gary Stellpflug, seated on the left, and Terese Miller, standing on the right, as our guides.

“I remember walking by it, and saying, ‘Gee, that’s a bench’,” said Stellpflug, who retired from the National Park Service in 2022 after more than 35 years as foreman of the Acadia trails crew and now volunteers for the park.

Stellpflug said the stone bench was “unquestionably constructed,” likely hoisted out of a nearby boulder field more than a century ago by trail builders using a winch.

The Kane Path granite bench, roughly triangular-shaped with each side about 42 inches, is directly off a popular, maintained hiking trail. It’s very visible, but few people know of the bench’s existence and over the ages, countless visitors have probably walked by without noticing it. Or, if they did see it, they likely didn’t identify it as a bench and a hidden gem in Acadia National Park.

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Q&A: FOA’s Eric Stiles on budget, major projects at Acadia

Eric Stiles, president & CEO of Friends of Acadia since July 2022

Eric Stiles, president & CEO of Friends of Acadia, has presided over big expansion of housing for Acadia National Park’s seasonal workforce. (Photo provided by Friends of Acadia)

The Friends of Acadia charity is helping advance some major projects at Acadia National Park. The philanthropic group is led by Eric Stiles, who started as president and CEO of Friends of Acadia in July 2022. Formerly leader at New Jersey Audubon, Stiles lives in Bar Harbor with his family including wife Lydia, a teacher at Mount Desert Island High School. Stiles spoke with Acadia On My Mind about a wide variety of issues, including the record-long federal government shutdown, an expansion of housing for seasonal workers at Acadia National Park, the Trump administration’s treatment of federal employees and major projects at Acadia such as the initially estimated $850,000 East-West Connector Trail on Cadillac Mountain, called a “visionary project” by FOA. Here are edited questions and responses:

Q. No entrance pass was required during the federal government shutdown that ended Nov. 12, and the park lost a significant amount of entrance fees that normally would have been collected during October and part of November. Entrance fees could be used on major projects such as the Cadillac East-West Connector Trail, considered a visionary project by FOA.

ERIC STILES: You can’t make up for the lost visitor fees. The park may have lost $1.7 to $1.8 million in entrance fees considering it collected $1.5 million in October 2024 and there was a 5 percent increase in visits this October and fees were not collected during two weeks in November. That is big money. Eighty percent of those fees would have remained at the park to fund visitor service programs, personnel and infrastructure projects. In addition, the staff that worked during the shutdown were largely being paid from prior entrance fee revenue. The park was spending its existing kitty at a much higher rate while starving revenue that would be important for the future. It’s a double whammy.

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US government shutdown at Acadia and rest of nation ends

The government shutdown at Acadia National Park and the remainder of the country ended on Wednesday night, clearing the way for the park to reinstate entrance fees, return staff to work and repair and reopen a popular boardwalk hiking path.

shutdown at Acadia

The Sand Beach entrance station, marked “Closed” during the government shutdown, is expected to reopen with rangers selling entrance passes to visitors who don’t have them.

In Washington, the House of Representatives on Wednesday night voted 222-209 to pass a Senate-approved bill that temporarily funds the government. President Donald Trump then signed the bill into law on Day 43 of the shutdown, the longest in history.

“It’s an honor to sign this incredible bill and get our country working again,” Trump said at a bill signing event.

What does it mean for Acadia National Park?

The free ride for visitors will be over. During the shutdown, which began on Oct. 1, entrance passes for the national park were not required. If Acadia returns to normal, entrance passes will be reinstated. The Park Loop Road fee station near Sand Beach was closed during the federal government shutdown at Acadia but it is expected to reopen with rangers who will sell passes to those without one. Automated fee machines, closed during the shutdown, are also expected to be running again.

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Sign of times? Acadia signs on climate change removed, hidden

Once posted on popular trails on Cadillac Mountain and along Great Meadow, large Acadia signs on climate change are now stored out of sight, crowded behind a corrugated metal building, next to a roll of chain link fencing, a beat up canoe and a couple of portable toilets.

The National Park Service stored away 10 signs, including nine on climate change and one on the Wabanaki tribe, behind a building after the Trump administration ordered them removed from Cadillac Mountain and the Great Meadow.

The National Park Service hid away 10 tripod signs, each with 3 informational panels, including nine signs totally on climate change and one sign with one panel on the Wabanaki tribe and two panels on climate change. The signs were found behind a corrugated metal building near old toilets, canoes and a spare roll of chain link fencing. The signs were put here after the Interior Secretary ordered them removed from Cadillac Mountain and Great Meadow. Oct. 5 photo

Once part of Acadia’s public policy effort to educate visitors about the impact of climate change on the park’s summits and shoreline, the signs are a casualty of the Trump administration’s view that the climate crisis is “the greatest con job.”

Under order by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the National Park Service at Acadia National Park in mid-September removed 10 cedar-framed tripod signs, each typically with three separate informational panels on it.  Most of the panels on the signs focused on the effects of climate change, but one panel on a tripod sign that had been on Cadillac celebrated Wabanaki history.

The removals came just before President Donald Trump called the climate emergency “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world ” during a speech to the UN General Assembly on Sept. 23.

Todd Martin, northeast senior program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, said the Department of Interior sent a letter to Acadia staff, indicating the Acadia signs on climate change were not in compliance with an executive order by Trump on March 27, called “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” Interior ordered the park to remove the Acadia signs on climate change, Martin told us.

Burgum issued his own executive order on May 20 with rules to implement the provisions of Trump’s order on federal lands managed by the Department of Interior.

A couple of reporters in early October found the climate change signs stacked behind a little-known building at Acadia, along with portable toilets, canoes and old equipment. The reporters visited the site on a hunch with no knowledge or tip that the signs were actually behind the building.

The history of the Wabanaki tribe took a hit when the Trump administration ordered this sign removed from Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park. Photo taken on Oct. 5.

A sign that recalls the special ground of the Wabanaki tribe on Cadillac Mountain is now squirreled away in a dark place behind a building at Acadia National Park, along with signs on climate change. Under an order in May by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the signs were taken down by the NPS as part of a nationwide sweep, partly to rid national parks of displays that “perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history.” Oct. 5 photo

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Government shutdown at Acadia could close Cadillac access

UPDATE: Department of Interior on Wednesday released a plan for Acadia National Park and other national parks to operate during a government shutdown that started on Wednesday after Congress failed to approve a bill to fund the government at the start of the new fiscal year. In a release, the National Parks Conservation Association says the DOI plan calls for parks to be largely left open with minimal staff. The DOI plan does not urge parks to discourage visitors. Campgrounds, most of the Park Loop Road at Acadia, entrance stations, viewpoints and trails to remain open. The park’s shuttle system, buses called the Island Explorer, operated as usual.

A federal government shutdown at Acadia National Park could hit on Wednesday, closing at least some parts of the national park during one of its busiest months of the year and hurting local businesses.

Hulls Cove Visitor Center

The Hulls Cove Visitor Center at Acadia National Park would likely be closed during a federal government shutdown. The flag, photographed flying at half-staff on Sept. 12, was lowered under a proclamation by President Donald Trump, to honor the memory of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated Sept. 10.

The shutdown of the federal government would come on Wednesday, Oct. 1, if Congress remains deadlocked on a bill that would extend federal appropriations beyond the end of the 2025 fiscal year on Tuesday. In past shutdowns, thousands of federal workers were put on furloughs, including employees at Acadia, but this year there could also be extensive firings of workers under a plan by President Donald Trump’s Office of Management and Budget.

President Donald Trump was scheduled to meet on Monday with leaders in Congress from both political parties in attempt to reach an agreement that would prevent a government shutdown at Acadia and much of the rest of the federal government.

How would Acadia be affected by a federal government shutdown?

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New Gateway Center to cut Acadia traffic, parking problems

A huge new transit and welcome center quietly opened this month, launching a high-stakes effort by Acadia National Park and key partners to persuade more visitors to take the park’s fare-free shuttle and reduce Acadia traffic and parking problems.

The arrowhead emblem of the National Park Service graces a main sign for the Acadia Gateway Center in Trenton.

The arrowhead emblem of the National Park Service graces a main sign for the Acadia Gateway Center in Trenton.

The Acadia Gateway Center, a key aspect of the park’s transportation plan, is strategically situated off Route 3 in Trenton about 11 miles north of the national park’s Hulls Cove Visitor Center, which can be so busy, drivers may circle around for minutes looking for a parking spot while at the same time having to watch out for pedestrians, bicyclists and RVs.

The Gateway Center, as yet largely undiscovered, aims to head off southbound visitors, allowing them to obtain information about the park and region, leave their cars and board the Island Explorer to reach popular attractions in Acadia on Mount Desert Island. The Gateway Center could also be used by commercial tours, boost carpooling and app-based ride sharing, and allow electric vehicles to charge up.

State owned and run by the MaineDOT in partnership with the National Park Service, Downeast Transportation, which operates Island Explorer, and the Maine Office of Tourism, the Gateway Center cost $32 million, including $27.7 million, to construct.

Planned for more than 20 years, complete funding for the project was uncertain until the first Trump administration awarded a stunning $9 million election-year grant in 2020, pushing financing to the finish line to tackle Acadia traffic and parking problems. US Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican up for reelection at the time, announced the grant as part of the Federal Transit Administration’s grants for buses and bus facilities program. Separately, in 2020, Trump signed the Great American Outdoors Act, a bipartisan, multi-billion-dollar funding law, introduced by Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent and cosponsored by Collins, that provided $32.6 million for a maintenance facility at Acadia and $7.8 million to rehab water and wastewater systems in Acadia’s Schoodic District.

EV chargers at Acadia Gateway Center

The Acadia Gateway Center in Trenton features Level 2 and fast-charging EV chargers and more than 400 spots in the day-use lot, which was mostly empty on a recent Friday.

The 270-space parking lot was full to capacity at the Hulls Cove Visitor Center on a sunny Friday afternoon at Acadia National Park.

Meanwhile, that same day, it was tough to find a place to park in the 270-space lot at the Hulls Cove Visitor Center 11 miles south in Acadia National Park.

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New book celebrates 25 years of hiking Acadia National Park

Hiking Acadia National Park

The fifth edition of “Best Easy Day Hikes Acadia National Park,” published by Falcon Guides, just came out in May.

Almost 25 years after publication of our first Falcon guide to hiking Acadia National Park, we’re celebrating with our new book – the newly published fifth edition of “Best Easy Day Hikes Acadia National Park.”

It’s gratifying to look back and realize that our 10 Falcon guides were written with a great deal of help from people who are authorities at hiking Acadia National Park, particularly Gary Stellpflug, retired longtime foreman of the Acadia National Park Trail Crew, and Charlie Jacobi, retired resource specialist with Acadia. Both took a lot of time providing interviews and reading the books before publication to assure they are accurate, comprehensive and meet park regulations, rules and policies.

We also are grateful to Friends of Acadia staff and volunteers, past and present, for their assistance on the books.

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Seasonal workers at Acadia get new RV camp, lower rents

Jim Turner, an Island Explorer bus driver this year, said he is impressed with his site at Acadia National Park’s new RV camp, called White Birches and built partly to help attract seasonal
workers at Acadia during a shortage of such workers at the park.

“This camp is fantastic,” said Turner, a retired optical network engineer and Army veteran who has stayed at RV places around the US while volunteering or working at national parks, a national forest and other sites. “They did a great job laying it out,” said Turner, who is working for the first time as a driver for the fare-free bus that services Acadia.

Amid scarce affordable housing in communities around Acadia, the new RV camp and a string of other new housing projects are aimed at lowering housing costs for seasonal workers at Acadia and thereby boosting services for visitors. With more economical rents, the number of seasonal employees at Acadia should eventually increase from the low numbers each of the past several years that have hurt some services for visitors, officials said.

Jim Turner, driver for the Island Explorer, at the new RV camp for seasonal employees and volunteers at Acadia National Park.

Jim Turner, with his dog, Kara, a mixed Chihuahua breed, stands outside his RV at the new camp for seasonal employees and volunteers at Acadia National Park.

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Acadia car reservations sales delayed, fired workers rehired

Acadia National Park car reservations on Cadillac Mountain are off to a rocky start this year, hampered by two delays in the release of tickets during the chaos of the new administration in Washington.

Acadia car reservations are required starting May 21 for people who want to drive up Cadillac. Reservations were originally set to be released online on Feb. 20. The release was then delayed to March 22 and then last week, with little time to spare, it was postponed again to April 15.

When asked about the delays, the National Park Service Office of Public Affairs stated, “As part of the broader efforts led by the Department of Interior under President Trump’s leadership, we are implementing necessary reforms to ensure fiscal responsibility, operational efficiency and government accountability. While we do not comment on personnel matters, the National Park Service remains steadfast in its commitment to serving the American public and preserving the natural and cultural resources entrusted to our care.”

Cadillac Mountain, the highest peak on the US eastern coast, is rated the most popular attraction in the Maine national park. More than 200,000 vehicle reservations were sold in 2024, allowing people to visit the peak from sunrise to sunset.

Another sold-out crowd for sunrise on Cadillac Mountain in August 2022 (Photo by Kate Sheehan)

Chaos in Washington means you’ll have to wait longer to make Acadia car reservations for sunrise atop Cadillac Mountain, like this spectacular one over Frenchman Bay in August 2022. (Photo by Kate Sheehan)

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Acadia carriage tours operator loses contract to ex-workers

A dark-horse candidate has captured a new 10-year contract to provide carriage tours in Acadia National Park, leaving the former operator shocked and frustrated about losing the business after many years.

The National Park Service’s regional director in Philadelphia awarded the concession contract for Wildwood Stables to a company headed by two of the prior operator’s former employees, Kari Goraj, and her husband, James Bartick, of Orland.

Two horse carriage ride in Acadia National Park

A two-horse carriage ride departs from Wildwood Stables in Acadia National Park in July 2022. (Photo by Lianne Saladino Pompeo)

The NPS rejected a bid from Carriages of Acadia, led by president Michael E. Carpenter, former state attorney general and state senator from Houlton, which held the contract for the narrated carriage tours in Acadia for 15 years, including several extensions totaling five years. The stable operation and carriage rides had about $850,000 in sales in a recent year, according to an NPS report on the business opportunity for Wildwood Stables.

In an interview, Carpenter called it a “real kick in the gut” to lose the concession to old friends and employees after all the blood, sweat and tears that he and his daughter, Emily Carpenter, who served as general manager, put into the business. “I don’t know how it happened,” he said. “I was stunned.” Continue reading →

New Acadia hiking trails foreman takes reins at key time

A new foreman is leading the way for work on Acadia hiking trails.

David Schlag

David Schlag, the new foreman of the Acadia trails crew, stands outside the crew’s trailer in Acadia National Park.

David Schlag, a 14-year veteran of the crew, is taking over as Acadia National Park trails crew foreman at a time when the park is facing some headwinds: trail damage from extreme weather events, increasing wear and tear on the trails with record crowds and a continuing shortage of seasonal workers.

Schlag will also oversee what could be one of the more transformational projects in years for Acadia hiking trails. The National Park Service is planning several trail extensions and a rehabilitation of the birch-lined Hemlock Path to make it more accessible, possibly with a boardwalk, as part of a more comprehensive effort to restore the Great Meadow.

acadia national park

This section of Hemlock Path with its birch trees is much photographed, and set for a major overhaul to improve drainage and accessibility as part of the restoration of Acadia’s Great Meadow. It’s one of the projects to be overseen by David Schlag, the new Acadia trails foreman.

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Lupine wildflowers of Acadia and monarchs in coming clash?

Cross over to Bar Island at low tide in June and July, and soon you’ll discover fields of majestic purple, blue and pink lupine wildflowers of Acadia, beckoning to be admired and photographed.

Lupine blooming on Bar Island in Acadia National Park.

Western lupine blooms in early June on Bar Island. The flower is popular with tourists who sometimes stop to pose for photos next to the purple, blue or pink flowers.

Squeezed along the edge of the fields stands a less showy plant – common milkweed – which could be missed if not for a sign calling this place a “Milkweed Habitat.”

These fields may be the site of a coming showdown between lupine and milkweed that could affect the fate of monarch butterflies in Acadia National Park.

As photogenic as the spiky tall flowers of the western lupine are, they are invasive non-native plants, threatening to crowd out the homelier milkweed critical to the lifecycle of the monarch, which recently became candidate for listing under the US Endangered Species Act. The faceoff between lupine and milkweed and the monarch could eventually come to a head on the island, just off the coast of Bar Harbor.

Acadia National Park seeks to protect milkweed habitat

An effort by the National Park Service to protect the soon-to-be-endangered Monarch butterfly includes spreading seeds for milkweed on Bar Island and staking signs to inform the public.

“If the western lupine is encroaching on critical habitats in the park…it would be a very high priority to remove it,” said Amanda S. Pollock, Acadia public affairs officer, in an email. In years past, the park’s Invasive Plant Monitoring Team “removed lupines encroaching on a significant area of milkweed to protect habitat for the soon to be listed as endangered monarch butterfly.”

Pollock said the team has managed lupine encroaching on milkweed on Bar Island, Fernald Point, and a small area near Great Meadow Drive. She said the team has removed lupine on Bar Island “but only a section of the field, near the milkweed and the path.”

The park has not planted any mature milkweed, but resource managers have spread seed in areas where milkweed would likely grow well, including Bar Island, Pollock added.

Western lupine competes for space with milkweed, which is vital for survival of monarch butterflies.

Which plant’s tendency to spread will win out: Invasive western lupine, on the left, or the later-to-bloom milkweed on the right? Monarch butterflies exclusively lay their eggs on milkweed, as the developing caterpillars need the milkweed sap for chemical defense against predators. This scene played out on Bar Island in Acadia National Park in early July.

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Best spot for sunrise in Acadia is sold-out show atop Cadillac

Cadillac Mountain may be the best spot for sunrise in Acadia National Park, or maybe even the entire US. Just try to get a ticket to the show – it can be as hard as scoring an entry to a Taylor Swift concert.

Summer sunrise on Cadillac Mountain

Another sold-out crowd for sunrise on Cadillac Mountain in August 2022 (Photo by Kate Sheehan)

A $6 reservation is required to drive a car up Cadillac summit from late May to late October and virtually 100 percent of the tickets were sold out over the online reservation system for sunrise during 2021 and 2022. The demand for a parking spot on Cadillac during sunrise is so intense that tickets can “literally sell out in seconds,” the superintendent of the park told the Acadia National Park Advisory Commission last year.

In 2022, for example, NPS statistics show that there were 21,895 tickets available for sunrise on Cadillac and 21,882 were sold.

Leah Bullard was one of the lucky ones to land a ticket for the best spot for sunrise in Acadia. The Alexandria, Va., woman said she set an alarm for the 10 am start of availability for advance purchase of tickets at recreation.gov for a May 31 sunrise on Cadillac, and then kept refreshing the page once the tickets became available. In about two minutes, she got one.

“Everyone told me, ‘The one thing you need to do in Acadia is see the sunrise from Cadillac’,” Bullard said in an interview. “It was beautiful.”

The rising sun shines on Leah Bullard atop Cadillac Mountain on May 31, 2023.

The rising sun shines on Leah Bullard atop Cadillac Mountain on May 31, 2023. Bullard said friends told her that sunrise on Cadillac was the “one thing” she needed to do in Acadia National Park. (Photo provided by Leah Bullard)

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