Changing fees and benefits coming to many parks, including Acadia
Nov 26, 2025
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by First National Bank.
BAR HARBOR—One of the many perks that come with living alongside a national park, at least for those in the area of Acadia National Park, is the ability to purchase an annual park pass for half-price every year. Acadia National Park holds the distinction of being the only national park to sell its annual pass at a lower price in December.
Those half-price passes, which normally cost $70, will cost $35 and go on sale starting December 1. The only confirmed locations thus far that will be selling them are the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce office located at the corner of Main Street and Cottage Street in Bar Harbor, the Harbor House in Southwest Harbor, the Town of Mount Desert at the town office, the Town of Tremont at its town office, and the Sand Beach Entrance Station in Acadia National Park.
According to Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce Director Everal Eaton, the chamber’s downtown office will be open on December 5 until 10 p.m., as part of its Village Holidays. Otherwise, the hours will be 8 a.m.-4 p.m., seven days a week. The office will be closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
The Acadia Chamber of Commerce will be selling the discounted passes at the Harbor House in Southwest Harbor located at 329 Main Street. The Harbor House’s normal hours are Monday-Friday from 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. The Harbor House is also closed for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
The $35 sale price lasts for the month of December or until the passes are sold out. There is a limited supply available.
AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL PARK PASSES
The park passes that can be purchased for half-price locally are park-specific passes, good only for Acadia National Park. Its counterpart park pass is the America the Beautiful park pass that costs an additional $10 but is much more versatile.
On November 25, 2025 the Department of the Interior issued a press release detailing some changes to the America the Beautiful pass program. Beginning January 1, 2026, the passes will be available in a digital format and will also allow the entrance of two motorcycles per pass.
Additionally, the press release reads, “as part of the Administration’s commitment to enhancing access for American residents, the department is also implementing America-first entry fee policies. U.S. residents will continue to enjoy affordable pricing, while nonresidents will pay a higher rate to help support the care and maintenance of America’s parks.”
The price for an America the Beautiful pass for people who are not U.S. residents will be $250. Those who are not U.S. residents and do not hold an annual pass will have to pay an additional $100 above and beyond the normal park entrance fee for each person in 11 of the park systems most visited parks.
Those 11 national parks are listed below leading off with Acadia National Park.
- Acadia National Park
- Bryce Canyon National Park
- Everglades National Park
- Glacier National Park
- Grand Canyon National Park
- Grand Teton National Park
- Rocky Mountain National Park
- Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks
- Yellowstone National Park
- Yosemite National Parks
- Zion National Park
“It would be a significant discount to purchase the annual pass at $250 for visitors that have three or more people or want to visit more than one park a year,” the National Park Service Office of Communications said when asked if park-specific passes would be affected by the new rules.
The office respondent continued, “Or, separately, they can purchase a ‘day or 7-day pass’ at each park and pay the vehicle fee, the cost of which varies by park. That can range anywhere from free to around $35. Additionally, they will pay the surcharge ($100 per person) which is a per person fee for anyone ages 16 and older at 11 of our most visited parks.”
Anyone who is not a U.S. resident who enters one of the 11 parks via commercial bus or on foot will have to pay the additional $100 fee.
“Park-specific passes are not affected for US residents. Park-specific passes for the parks that are not those 11 parks are not affected for international visitors,” the office said when asked for clarification on whether or not a park-specific pass would cost someone who is not a U.S. resident $70 (or whatever the current price is) or $250.
FREE ENTRANCE DAYS FOR 2026
The Department of the Interior’s press release also highlighted next year’s entrance-fee-free days listed below:
- February 16: Presidents Day (Washington’s Birthday)
- May 25: Memorial Day
- June 14: Flag Day/President Trump’s birthday
- July 3–5: Independence Day weekend
- August 25: 110th Birthday of the National Park Service
- September 17: Constitution Day
- October 27: Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday
- November 11: Veterans Day
These free entrance days are only United States residents. Anyone who is not a resident of the U.S. will have to pay the fees listed in the previous section.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Department of the Interior Press Release
UPDATE: We’ve updated this article at 8:10 p.m on November 26 to include the Town of Tremont in the list of locations with park passes.
A NOTE FROM US
This is Carrie and Shaun, and as you’ve probably noticed, we’ve been working hard at the Bar Harbor Story, providing local news in a way that keeps you informed, but also embraces and promotes community and the good that is within it.
We take so much time—just the two of us, with a special needs kid that has to be homeschooled—to cover our island community’s (plus, Trenton) local news in a way that’s timely, daily, and remembers that underneath the news . . . there are people who are our neighbors.
We are working hard to get the news out there—for free—for everyone. But it’s taking its toll on our family financially and honestly, sometimes, emotionally, because frontline local news in a small community? It’s hard.
Most media isn’t local (even when it claims it is). Most media has paywalls and advertisers. We don’t. That’s not a smart financial decision for us. It’s a moral one. And we’re going to try to do it for as long as we can because we’re local, we’re passionate, and we’re all about getting the news to everyone—no paywalls.
Why?
Richard Stengel, writing in The Atlantic, said, “Paywalls create a two-tiered system: credible, fact-based information for people who are willing to pay for it, and murkier, less-reliable information for everyone else. Simply put, paywalls get in the way of informing the public, which is the mission of journalism.”
As a paper that is owned and staffed only by locals, we make every attempt to gather all of the facts for our readers, information that might not be part of the main story and/or information that may not be known even to our towns’ officials, but is still just as important, if not more important, to the story.
We currently have well over 5,000 subscribers, the vast majority of them free, with over 401,500 article reads every month. Every one of our stories is opened at least 3,500 times. Most are opened well over that amount.
To continue to provide you with fact-based, non-editorialized news, we really need your support! If you’d like to support us or subscribe? It would mean the world to us, and to the Bar Harbor Story!
There are a few ways to do that:
- You can send us a one-time support via this link here. It will say “Carrie Jones Books” because that’s what our PayPal account is through.
- You can become a paid subscriber at either site here (scroll to bottom) or here (scroll to bottom).
- Your business or nonprofit can sponsor the Bar Harbor Story with a banner ad. More information on that is here.
THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING OUR COMMITMENT TO ALL OF OUR COMMUNITY
Discover more from Bar Harbor Story
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.