Visitation

By JIM MANN

to Glacier stays same

The Daily Inter Lake

Glacier National Park's summer season ended much as it did last year in visitor numbers.

According to the National Park Service's Public Use Statistics Office in Denver, Glacier had about 10,000 fewer visitors during the first eight months of this year compared to the same period in 2005. But with total visitation of more than 1.5 million people through August, the decline amounts to just 0.67 percent.

"I think it's significant to point out that Going-to-the-Sun Road opened almost a month later this year," said Dori Muehlhof, executive director of the Flathead Convention and Visitors Bureau. "The Sun Road opening is really the start of the official tourist season for us, so [visitor numbers] caught up."

Glacier's historic highway opened on May 22 in 2005. This year it opened June 23.

Muehlhof said the park's numbers are a fair reflection of tourism-related activity in the Flathead Valley.

"It's the indicator for summer business, just like the Big Mountain is the indicator for winter business," Muehlhof said.

High gas prices were expected to have an impact on tourism businesses, she said, but instead they tended to merely change visitor behavior.

Recreational-vehicle parks, for instance, reported a strong summer because recreational vehicle owners still went on vacation, but they traveled less and stayed in the parks for longer periods, Muehlhof said.

Airline tickets were expensive, but planes coming in and out of Glacier Park International Airport were full throughout the summer, she added.

Glacier's statistics closely matched last year's in most other regards. The 22,051 backcountry visits and 153,421 campground stays were slightly lower than last year.

As usual, West Glacier was the busiest park entrance with about 866,000 visitors, followed by St. Mary with about 224,000 visitors.

The number of park visitors through August 2005 was down about 3.7 percent compared to the first eight months of 2004.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com