In the latest sign that parts of the North Country can be too popular for their own good, the town of Conway has starting issuing $100 parking tickets on roads near Diana’s Baths, a series of pools and cascades on a small brook.
Selectmen have raised the fine for parking along West Side Road from $10 to $100 because of complaints from locals about cars blocking their access. More than 40 parking tickets have been issued so far, according to the Conway Daily Sun.
The popular recreation acre, site of a former sawmill along Lucy Brook, is about 2 ½ miles from Conway Village. Conway and the state Department of Transportation have been arguing for months about how to control parking along the state road.
This is far from the only place where roadside parking is a concern as outdoor recreation booms in the North Country.
On nice weekends it’s not uncommon for cars to be parked a mile in each direction along I-93 in Franconia Notch as day-hikers fill up parking lots en route to Franconia Ridge. There have been calls to limit parking along that road – the only two-lane stretch of interstate highway in the country – as a way to reduce overuse of trails in the fragile White Mountain alpine regions.
Concern about parking and overcrowding were part of the debate over the Appalachian Mountain Club’s now-shelved idea to building a backcountry hut in Crawford Notch State Park, and is a big part of opposition to a proposed new hotel built alongside the Cog Railway, halfway up Mount Washington.
