Carbon County and the Jim Thorpe area are preparing for the upcoming fall foliage festival weekends, when thousands of tourists visit the town as the mountains come alive with fall colors.

The groups plan, prepare and work to create a positive experience for visitors, however, parking always remains an issue.

The county parking lot fills to capacity before 10 a.m. on October weekends, and tourists are left traversing residential streets hunting for a parking spot.

Over the years, this has caused stress on both visitors and residents, and even created what they called “trafficgeddon” where so many people visited that police had to tell people to keep driving because there just wasn’t anymore room for them to park.

To try to help visitors, various businesses and organizations are creating creative parking solutions to help cut down on the issue of finding a spot.

On Thursday, the county commissioners announced that they are expecting to nearly double the amount of parking that will be available at Mauch Chunk Lake Park, with shuttle service taxiing visitors from the lake into the downtown historic district.

Commissioners’ Chairman Michael Sofranko, who served as the Jim Thorpe mayor until being elected commissioner this year, said that there have been meetings happening in the borough and county since the beginning of the year.

“We have been sitting in with those,” he said, noting that the two entities have discussed everything from emergency services to the traffic flow during the fall foliage weekends.

In addition to the approximate 400 spots inside the county parking lot in downtown Jim Thorpe, Sofranko said that between 150 and 200 spots with shuttle service will be made available from Mauch Chunk Lake Park.

“Residents have a problem with people parking and filling their streets up, so by trying to increase out there (Mauch Chunk Lake Park), it is one way of handling more cars parked,” he said. “It also helps LANTA with ridership. If ridership goes up, more federal money will come back to Carbon County, which is a financial benefit to us and to LANTA.”

Parking is available at the lake through a reservation system so visitors are guaranteed a spot when they arrive.

The Fall Foliage Festival in Jim Thorpe has become a popular destination for people from New York, New Jersey and the surrounding areas. This year’s festival is held Oct. 5-6, 12-13 and 19-20.

According to Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau, in addition to the county lot and Mauch Chunk Lake Park, additional parking on the weekends in October have been made available at the following locations:

• Immaculate Conception Church at 163 West Broadway in Jim Thorpe.

• Pocono Whitewater at 1519 State Route 903. The company will then provide shuttle parking into Jim Thorpe and drop off on the east side of Jim Thorpe. Visitors can then walk across the Sgt. AJ Baddick Bridge into the historic district .

• Sam Miller Field at 122 North Ave., Jim Thorpe. Shuttle service is provided from the heights section of the borough down to next to the Opera House.

For more information on these parking locations, visit https://www.poconomountains.com/jim-thorpe/parking.