The rule is simple and the timing is not.
From 20 May to 25 October 2026 you cannot drive up Cadillac Mountain — the Cadillac Summit Road — without a vehicle reservation. It costs $6 per vehicle, it is separate from your park entrance pass, and you need both. It is sold only online, in advance, on recreation.gov — the Park Service states it is “not available for purchase at the park.”
Outside that season you need no reservation. The summit road is open to cars from 15 April to 30 November, weather permitting (in 2026 construction at the summit kept it shut until 30 April), and before and after the reservation season you drive up with only your park pass. The 2027 season is not posted yet. Acadia in spring has what opens when from 15 April 2027, the reservation-free weeks before the season included, and this page will carry the 2027 dates and release times when they are out.
From 1 December to 14 April the summit road is closed to cars, and Acadia in winter has what stays open and the summit on foot. Much of Bar Harbor closes for the winter too, so for a November drive up, Bar Harbor after the bus stops has the hotels that stay open.
Cadillac Mountain tickets, passes and the “sunrise pass”
There is no separate ticket or pass for Cadillac. What people search for as a Cadillac Mountain ticket, a summit pass or a sunrise pass is this vehicle reservation, and recreation.gov sells it as two products:
| On recreation.gov | What it is |
|---|---|
| Cadillac Summit Road — Sunrise | The sunrise reservation: a 90-minute entry window before dawn, one per vehicle every seven days |
| Cadillac Summit Road — Daytime | The rest of the day: a 30-minute entry window, one per vehicle per day |
Both cost $6 per vehicle, and both sit on top of the park entrance pass; recreation.gov’s listing says an America the Beautiful annual or lifetime pass counts as that pass. Neither is sold at the park.
When Cadillac Mountain reservations are released
Reservations come out in two blocks, and they are not the same size:
| Block | When | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Advance | 10 a.m. Eastern, 90 days ahead of the date | 30% |
| Two-day | 10 a.m. Eastern, two days before | 70% |
Both blocks open at 10 a.m. Eastern, per the Park Service’s vehicle reservations page. The 90-day release is a 10 a.m. sale too, not a trickle through the day, and it sells out like one.
The two-day drop is more than twice as large as the 90-day release, and it is the one that rescues trips — because if you are already in Bar Harbor, you get a fresh shot at 10 a.m. every single morning.
The 30/70 split applies to sunrise and daytime reservations alike. They are separate pools of inventory, but each pool is released on the same schedule, so seventy percent of the sunrise slots for any given morning appear two days before it.
Set an alarm for 9:55 Eastern. Be logged in to recreation.gov already. The thing that loses people the reservation is creating an account while the inventory drains.
Booking on recreation.gov, step by step
- Make a recreation.gov account days ahead, and be signed in before 10 a.m. on release day.
- Open Cadillac Summit Road Vehicle Reservations and choose Sunrise or Daytime. The Recreation.gov app sells them too.
- Pick the date and the entry time. Daytime times are 30-minute windows; the sunrise reservation is one 90-minute window.
- Book one reservation per vehicle. Motorcycles, scooters and mopeds each need their own. The Park Service’s fees page asks anyone arriving in a rental car to choose “Rental Vehicle” in recreation.gov’s vehicle-type menu.
- Save the QR code before you set off. The confirmation carries a QR code that is scanned at the check station, and the Park Service warns that connectivity in the park is unreliable: print it, download it or take a screenshot.
Entry windows and limits
A reservation is a timed entry. You arrive inside your window, and you can stay until the road closes to vehicles at 9 p.m. It does not allow re-entry. The windows for the last weeks of the 2026 season:
| Sunrise (90-minute window) | Enter between |
|---|---|
| September | 5 — 6:30 a.m. |
| 1 — 15 October | 5:30 — 7 a.m. |
| 16 — 25 October | 6 — 7:30 a.m. |
| Daytime (30-minute window) | Reservation times |
|---|---|
| 16 — 30 September | 7 a.m. — 6:30 p.m. |
| 1 — 15 October | 7:30 a.m. — 6 p.m. |
| 16 — 25 October | 8 a.m. — 5:30 p.m. |
The limits: one sunrise reservation per seven days, and one daytime reservation per day. Reservations are per vehicle, not per person, and a motorcycle needs its own.
A reservation is not a parking space. It does not assign one. There are two parking areas at the summit, and parking outside the marked spaces is prohibited. Vehicles over 21 feet long, bike racks and hitch attachments included, and all RVs and trailers are turned away even with a reservation — the 21-foot rule has how to measure.
The sunrise reservation, or “sunrise pass”
Cadillac is the first place in the United States to see sunrise for part of the year, and that is not a marketing line — it is why the sunrise reservations are a separate and much smaller pool.
Sunrise comes early. The Park Service puts sunrise at about 4:45 a.m. in mid-June and 6:15 a.m. in mid-October, and its Cadillac Mountain page advises arriving roughly an hour before sunrise, because it is the summit’s busiest time and parking is often full.
If sunrise is the reason you are coming, treat it as the fixed point the trip is built around and go for the 90-day window — but do not write off the two-day drop, because seventy percent of the sunrise inventory is released there too. This page previously told you to plan around the 90-day window “rather than hoping for the two-day drop”, which meant ignoring the larger of the two pools.
One sunrise reservation per vehicle every seven days. That is recreation.gov’s rule, and it means a week in Acadia does not buy you seven attempts at a clear sunrise. It buys you one. If the forecast is bad for the morning you hold, that is the morning you have.
Or ride up on someone else’s. At Your Service Tours runs a private two-hour sunrise trip that collects you from your Bar Harbor lodging and drives to the summit on its own sunrise reservation, so you need none of your own. It is priced by the van, for up to six, so it suits a group better than a couple. It is in the tours below.
If your plans move
You can change a reservation to another date or time at no cost, as long as you do it before the one you are holding begins. Canceling is different: the $6 is non-refundable unless you cancel at least 48 hours before the start time. So move it rather than cancel it.
The thing that makes all of this optional
You do not need a reservation to be on Cadillac Mountain. You need one to drive.
The Park Service exempts anyone arriving on foot, by bike or by taxi:
- North Ridge Trail and South Ridge Trail go to the summit on foot, no reservation, no fee beyond park entry.
- By bike, up the summit road itself.
- By taxi, which is exempt from the reservation.
- On a paid guided tour whose itinerary includes the summit: the operator drives up on its own summit reservation.
Walking up the North Ridge, concretely
What walking up actually involves:
- 4.4 miles round trip, which NPS allows 2.5 to 4 hours for at an average pace. It is an out-and-back to the highest point on the eastern seaboard.
- It is mostly exposed granite slope and stairs, with views over Bar Harbor and Frenchman Bay for most of the climb and no shade to speak of.
- The bus does reach the trailhead, even though it does not reach the summit. NPS’s recommended start is the Kebo Brook Trail from the Island Explorer bus stop — 0.1 miles to the junction with the North Ridge Trail. The park lists that service as mid-June to October.
- The alternative start is a small pull-off on the Park Loop Road just past the beginning of the one-way section. NPS says parking there is extremely limited and often fills early, which is the argument for the bus.
- It is a popular sunrise and sunset hike, which means headlamps and the understanding that you are descending exposed granite in the dark.
That is the honest version of “just walk up”: a half-day hike, not a stroll, and the one route to the summit that neither the reservation system nor the parking lot can take away from you.
The Island Explorer does not go to the summit. We said it did until 18 September 2026. The Park Service is explicit: “Cadillac is not served by the Island Explorer bus system.” If you read that here and planned around it, we are sorry — it was the worst kind of error, because it would have persuaded you not to book at all.
So the reservation buys you convenience rather than access — but the free bus is not one of the alternatives, and if you want to drive up in the reservation season, book it.
What it all costs
| Cadillac Summit reservation | $6 per vehicle, non-refundable inside 48 hours |
| Park entrance, private vehicle, 7 days | $35 |
| Motorcycle | $30 |
| Per person on foot or bike | $20 |
| Acadia annual pass | $70, US citizens and residents only |
| America the Beautiful | $80, US citizens and residents only |
| America the Beautiful, non-resident | $250 |
| Non-US residents, 16 and over | $100 each, on top of the entrance fee |
The entrance pass covers a private, non-commercial vehicle of 15 seats or fewer and everyone in it, for seven days.
If you are not a US resident, budget the $100 nonresident fee per person aged 16 and over as well. The $70 and $80 passes that would waive it are sold only to US citizens and residents. The $250 non-resident annual waives it too, and it pays for itself only with a larger party or a second surcharge park. Riding in a private vehicle with anyone who holds a valid America the Beautiful or park annual pass covers you. The fees page has the arithmetic, and the Park Service’s own fees page the table.
The $6 is trivial. The calendar is the cost, and it is the only thing worth planning around. On a short trip that means booking on your first morning for your third — the three-day itinerary is built around exactly that.
Where to book
recreation.gov, and nowhere else — not at the park, and not from any tour operator. Anyone implying otherwise is selling you something else.
The one bookable alternative is a guided tour whose operator holds its own summit reservation. How that works, and the four tours we compare, including the $100 non-US fee that a tour does not avoid.
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