Glacier Park visitation up 2% in May
Grace Lake in Glacier National Park.
Glacier National Park reported a 2% increase in visitors during May this year compared to May 2019, and the highest year-to-date visitation through May on record, park officials said recently.
The park hosted 170,277 visitors in May.
May 2020 was not used as a year-to-year comparison due to the park being closed until June 8 because of COVID-19, a press release stated. May visitation is weather-dependent and considered a shoulder season month at Glacier, with most visitors coming in June, July and August.
Year-to-date recreation visits over the last several years (through May) were:
2021 – 294,742
2020 – 56,048
2019 – 251,704
2018 – 269,347
2017 – 263,938
2016 – 292,529
The park instituted the new Going-to-the-Sun Road ticketed entry process on May 28, which requires visitors to obtain an entry ticket reservation on Recreation.gov prior to arriving at the park. Visitation for the period of May 28 through June 13 was 27% higher this year than in 2019. Based on the number of arriving vehicles, in the absence of the ticketed entry system, the park very likely would have had to close the west entrance gate at least seven times over this period to manage severe congestion, gridlock, and traffic backups onto U.S. 2, the park's press release noted.
An average of 23% of visitors arrived at the West and St. Mary entrances without an entry ticket reservation over Memorial Day weekend, a number park officials expect to continue trending downward as the summer progresses.
The park has seen an expected change in visitation patterns at the West entrance, with an increase in vehicles arriving before 6 a.m. and especially after 5 p.m. when entry ticket reservations are not required. Visitors who arrive at 5 p.m. should expect heavy traffic and wait times.
The North Fork entrance near Polebridge is seeing high volumes of traffic and vehicle entry has been restricted by mid-morning daily, the release noted. Visitors are encouraged to check restrictions and closures before traveling to the park.
Park staff continue to closely monitor and evaluate visitor numbers in comparison to ticket reservations to ensure the system is functioning optimally and maximizing access within the park’s capacity constraints. As a result of this ongoing analysis, daily ticket allocations have increased a few times since the program began. This approach will be used throughout the summer, park officials said.
Visitors are encouraged to plan ahead and have a backup plan. Details for the Going-to-the-Sun Road reservation system may be found on Glacier National Park’s Website and tickets may be reserved at recreation.gov.