Park visitor count up 7.8 percent
After being shooed away by a Glacier National Park ranger, a coyote runs though traffic last weekend along Going-to-the-Sun Road near Rising Sun. Nearly half a million people visited Glacier National Park in August. Karen Nichols/Daily Inter Lake
The Daily Inter Lake
Nearly half a million people visited Glacier National Park in August, and overall visitation continues to be well above last year.
According to National Park Service statistics, Glacier recorded 492,343 visitors last month. That's compared to 493,092 visitors in August 2006.
This year, there have been 1,683,251 visitors to Glacier.
That's 7.8 percent higher than during the first eight months of 2006, when the park recorded 1,561,838 visitors.
The visitor count at the St. Mary entrance showed a 16-percent increase from August 2006 to August 2007 - but that may reflect a fire-related closure of the St. Mary area last year.
All park entrance stations show increased year-to-date numbers except Polebridge and Many Glacier.
The visitor count at the west entrance - the busiest park gateway - is up 10 percent this year with almost 1 million people going through the gates near West Glacier.
At St. Mary, yearly visitor figures show a 15.4-percent increase over 2006.
Although the overall number of overnight stays is down slightly this year compared to last year, group camping and backcountry camping have increased in 2007 in Glacier.
Listed below are visitor counts for Glacier's entrance stations through August 2007:
Entrance 2007 2006 Percentage
change
Polebridge 36,423 36,771 -0.9%
St. Mary 259,403 224,873 +15.4%
Camas 53,295 51,480 +3.5%
Many Glacier 158,316 179,133 -11.6%
West entrance 954,509 866,585 +10.1%
Goat Haunt 34,163 30,062 +13.6%
Walton 65,694 54,221 +21.2%
Two Medicine 110,110 103,274 +6.6%
Total 1,683,251 1,561,838 +7.8%