The Adirondack Mountain Reserve parking lot in St. Huberts is seen Oct. 5, 2019. (Enterprise photo — Elizabeth Izzo)

The state Department of Environmental Conservation and Adirondack Mountain Reserve plan to bring back a pilot reservation-based parking system in the AMR parking lot this year.

The system will open on May 1, with slots available to book as early as April 17.

The online reservation system, HikeAMR, was launched last May in an effort to mitigate safety issues and traffic problems on a stretch of state Route 73 near the entrance to the AMR lot, which boasts several popular trailheads to the High Peaks Wilderness. In the past, when the parking lot would get full, there was no way for hikers to know it was full before they arrived. Upon arrival, some hikers would choose to park illegally along the roadside and walk along the road to their desired trailhead. Tested in the AMR parking lot last year, the system gives High Peaks visitors the opportunity to register for a parking spot in advance. The pilot system is expected to operate through next year.

People can start booking spots for the upcoming peak hiking season on April 17, and reservations can be made up to two weeks in advance on a 24-hour rolling basis.

The reservation system will be open this year through Oct. 31. Reservations will be required to access the AMR parking lot, trailheads and trails on the 7,000 acre AMR property, according to a news release from the DEC. AMR has a conservation easement with the DEC that allows the public to hike there.

Reserving a parking spot at AMR is free, and people can reserve a spot for a single day or for overnight use. People who are camping could reserve a spot for up to three nights. People getting dropped off or picked up in the AMR lot, or arriving by bicycle, would also need to register with the system. There are 70 reservations, including overnight reservations, available per day. Reservations will also be required for access to Noonmark and Round Mountain trailheads, which are on the AMR property.

AMR won’t allow people to walk in without reservations, except people who have a Greyhound or Trailways bus ticket from within the past 24 hours.

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Initial success

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More than 21,000 hikers signed up to use the new Adirondack Mountain Reserve pilot parking reservation system last summer, according to the DEC’s release. The department said that 14,000 of those registrants were New Yorkers, while 6,600 came from outside the state and 138 people came from other countries. Only 113 Canadians registered with the system last year; the U.S.-Canada land border was closed for most of the summer due to the pandemic. The DEC expects reservation numbers to rise this year as pandemic-related restrictions are lifted.

DEC and AMR made a few tweaks to the reservation system after it launched last year. One of those changes was installing an automatic gate so hikers could return to their cars and exit the AMR lot at their convenience. Previously, there was a manual gate that employees shut at 7 p.m. nightly; some hikers expressed concern that they might not have enough time to descend to their cars before closing. Hikers can also now make their parking reservations just 12 hours in advance, as opposed to the original requirement of 24 hours in advance. Other changes included starting an email reminder system to reduce no-shows, increasing the number of people allowed per reservation to eight, and moving the start time for the rolling two-week opening of future dates from midnight to noon.