10/01/2025
Department of Interior releases plan for Acadia National Park to operate during government shutdown. Plan does not urge parks to discourage visitors. Campgrounds, most of the Park Loop Road, entrance stations and trails to remain open. All park roads, campgrounds and trails in Acadia National Park will generally remain open to visitors during the government shutdown that started Wednesday, under a plan released by the Department of Interior shortly after Congress failed to pass a bill to pay for government services in the new fiscal year that started Oct. 1. The plan calls for an orderly shutdown for National Parks including Acadia, meaning many visitor services could be kept operating at least on the first day. During a shutdown, federal employees are placed on furlough without pay, meaning Acadia will be short staffed. The plan by the DOI, which oversees the park service, excluded language in a 2024 draft plan from the Biden administration that advised visitors to avoid national parks during a shutdown. Acadia would use money outside annual appropriations to provide basic visitor services such as campgrounds, maintenance of restrooms, trash collection, law enforcement, emergency services and staffing entrance gates, the plan said. As a general rule, if a facility or area is locked or secured during non-business hours - buildings like the Hulls Cove Visitor Center or the summit road to Cadillac - it should be locked or secured for the duration of the shutdown, the plan said. Cadillac requires motor vehicle reservations and the summit road closes at 9 pm. Acadia National Park is expected to release more operational specifics for the park on Wednesday including the motor vehicle reservation system on Cadillac. The Jordan Pond House, which is operated by a concessionaire, is expected to remain open, as it planned during 2023, when Congress went down to the wire at the end of September before funding government and avoiding a shutdown. The JPH had no closure notice on its web site. The shutdown started today on Wednesday after Democrats in the US Senate defeated a bill to pay mostly for stopgap spending until Nov. 21. The bill had been approved in the Republican-controlled US House. Democrats in both the House and Senate are pushing to restore Medicaid cuts and to extend tax credits under Obamacare, but the bill did not include those measures. It's unknown how long the shutdown will last. Read our story and see link to Interior plan
A government shutdown at Acadia could close some parts of the Maine national park like Cadillac but not hiking trails or parking lots.
