Glacier Park visitation statistics show increase
Park entry patterns change to times when entry ticket reservations are not required
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News from Glacier National Park
GLACIER NATIONAL PARK — The park hosted 170,277 visitors in May 2021. This year is the park’s highest visitation year-to-date through May on record.
May 2020 cannot be used as a good year-to-year comparison due to the park being closed until June 8 because of COVID-19.
May visitation is weather dependent and considered a shoulder season month at Glacier National Park with most visitors coming in June, July and August.
The year-to-date trend for recreation visits over the last several years (through May) shows the increase: 2021 – 294,742; 2020 – 56,048; 2019 – 251,704; 2018 – 269,347; 2017 – 263,938; and 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 percent higher this year than in 2019. Based on the number of arriving vehicles, in the absence of the ticketed entry system, the park would very likely 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. Highway 2.
An average of 23 percent of visitors arrived at the West and St. Mary entrances without an entry ticket reservation over Memorial Day weekend, which is a number we expect to continue trending downwards as we move forward into the summer.
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. 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.
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.
