Superintendent says Glacier dealing with less experienced visitors

Standing beside a photo of a hiker jumping in the air off a floating ice slab on Iceberg Lake, Glacier National Park Superintendent Jeff Mow says visitation is changing in the park.

A different kind of visitor is coming to Glacier than in year’s past, Mow noted last week during a talk before the Whitefish Chamber of Commerce.

He said Glacier previously had a reputation as a park that’s “not for a first-timer, but social media has erased that reputation.”

Visitation for Glacier in 2017 hit a record mark at 3.3 million for the entire year. Visitation in July was up by 23 percent, but emergency calls in the park were up 46 percent.

It’s a trend, he says, that results when visitors are coming with less experience in National Parks and on trails. At the Iceberg Lake backcountry outhouse, he noted, crews have had difficulty cleaning because of the line of folks waiting to use the outhouse to change into bathing suits to jump into the lake for a photo.

“It’s less about sharing the experience with others around the lake and more about what can I share on social media,” he said.

Mow said Glacier will likely be faced with increasing its education efforts like other National Parks have already.

“We will be looking at making sure there are safety tips for first time visitors, so we don’t have issues,” he said. “We want them to know that it’s about sharing the experience with others and not always about sharing a picture on Facebook.”

At the beginning of his talk Mow showed two photos taken on the same day last year in the park — one with snow on Logan Pass and the other showing the Sprague Fire near the head of Lake McDonald.

“That is the whipsaw as visitor services providers that we have to work with in terms of where we are for resources and the experiences we provide,” he said. “Sometimes we get pulled in two very different directions.”

Mow reviewed last year and looked ahead to this summer season. He summed up 2017 for Glacier Park as a year with large snowfall in winter, record visitation and ending with a historic fire season. While he says it’s impossible to tell what 2018 will mean for the park, and years beyond, the key seems to be learning from previous years and preparing.

“There is critical uncertainties that are huge drivers in changes,” he said. “It’s getting a whole lot less predictable to what the future holds. We have to think about adapting and reacting. One month it may be a million visitors, and the next month it may be fires and smoke and managing the visitor experience — that’s where I see the future is being able to make the pivot.”

In July 2017 there were 1 million visitors alone that came to Glacier. That’s more than visited Yellowstone National Park, Mow said, noting that visitation in Glacier is typically less than Yellowstone.

“Clearly 1 million visitors is more than any capacity the park was designed for,” he said. “I really hope that is not a continuing trend and there will be fluctuations.”

The months of June, July and August last year had increases of more than 20 percent in visitation. September visitation was down, but that was likely the result of the Sprague Fire.

Mow said he is no longer getting the question of when will the Going-the-Sun Road open for the season.

“[Business owners] are saying they can’t handle the people that are already coming in May and June,” he said.

Along with visitation, comes traffic that results in filled parking lots. The Park restricted traffic up the Bowman Lake Road because of congestion on the road by 10 a.m. on 20 days during the season. It also implemented a “one car in, one car out” at Many Glacier during peak times. The Logan Pass parking lot also often filled at 8:30 a.m.

Mow says the Park plans to continue directing visitors to other opportunities outside Glacier on busy days, but is looking at ways to mitigate the issue inside the Park too.

He noted that very few cars parked at Logan Pass early in the day leave until five hours later, which means that many hikers are using the parking lot.

“That’s displacing a demographic of users that want to stop at Logan for a bathroom break, take a few photos and move on,” he said. “We’re looking at whether we should add timed parking spots to give that opportunity.”

He noted that the Park is unlikely to impose the “one car in, one car out” rule on the Sun Road, because that type of system only works on dead-end roads.

He noted that the Park’s shuttle system was “maxed out” with use, and while he doesn’t envision expanding it, that wouldn’t preclude in the future looking at concessionaires to provide more transportation options.

One of the defining moments for Glacier Park in 2017 was on Aug. 31 when the historic Sperry Chalet burned in the Sprague Fire. The main dormitory of the chalet was gutted and work last fall stabilized the structure for the winter. More stabilization work is expected this summer and plans to rebuild it should begin next summer, according to Mow.

“Sperry Chalet felt like losing a relative,” he said. “But we also knew it was an opportunity to rebuild or preserve it.”

The park is working with the Glacier National Park Conservancy to rebuilt Sperry at an estimated project cost of $8 to $12 million.

Doug Mitchell, executive director of the conservancy, spoke briefly about the conservancy’s work. He said the group expects to support $2.17 million in Park projects in 2018, and contribute an additional $2 million to the Sperry Chalet rebuild.

That’s a high goal, Mitchell noted, but added that initial donations for stabilization work for Sperry poured in quickly from all 50 states and outside the U.S. raising $120,000.

“That’s the power of Sperry,” he said. “For people who have a Sperry story this is their opportunity to participate in history.”