There were over 3 million visits to Acadia National Park during 2016, and after observing the traffic coming off I-395 in Brewer and eventually clogging High Street in Ellsworth, one has to believe that even more made the trip this year.

One only has to walk the well-used trails that sometimes resemble cattle paths within Acadia, to take notice of how many people are now hiking, walking, or biking in the woods with you.

This past summer the road to the summit of Cadillac Mountain was closed numerous times because so many people and their cars were trying to access the area.

Yesterday, there were at least 30 climbers on the face of the famous El Capitan mountain within Yosemite National Park when a 100 by 100 foot piece of rock let loose and slid down the side of the four-thousand foot wall, killing one person and injuring another.

According to an article in the New York Times, there are now so many people, 4.3 million last year, visiting Zion National Park in Utah, that authorities there are considering certain options for admittance.

One of those options is requiring reservations for entry, and would set a yet to be determined limit on visitors allowed into the very popular National Park. The second would be to require reservations for only certain sections of the park.  The third would be to make no changes at all.

“We don’t have a choice,” said Jack Burns, who has worked in Zion since 1982 and told the New York Times. “We have to do something. If this going to remain a place of special importance for generations, we have to do something now.”

Let us know what you think!

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