Park visitor count drops 15 percent

Glacier National Park finished 2011 with a 15.7 percent decline in visitation, a trend that can partly be attributed to weather and the record visitor count from the previous year.

A total of 1,853,564 people entered the park in 2011, compared to the all-time high of 2.2 million in 2010, according to a year-end report from the National Park Service's Public Use Statistics Office.

The park's peak summer season got off to a slow start because of cold weather from early April through June that delayed snowmelt across much of the park.

The July 13 opening of Going-to-the-Sun Road at Logan Pass was the latest on record. Previously, the latest opening was on July 10, 1943, a year when the park was short-staffed because of World War II.

High gas prices also may have played a part in last year's visitor dropoff.

Concession lodging in the park was down 22 percent while tent camping was down nearly 6 percent and backcountry overnight stays were down 16 percent. Total overnight stays were down 10.8 percent compared to 2010.

The St. Mary entrance had the highest visitor decline during 2011. A total of 314,946 visitors were recorded at St. Mary last year, a 41.7-percent decrease from 540,143 during 2010, Glacier's centennial year.

Glacier's busiest entrance station at West Glacier had 906,991 visitors during 2011, down 6.89 percent from 2010's 973,216.

Polebridge visitation also dropped sharply, from 89,384 to 51,815.

Glacier entrance stations at Two Medicine, Walton and Camas had slight visitor increases during 2011.