Visitor counts soar during June in Glacier Park
<p>A hiker makes his way through a patch of beargrass along the Swiftcurrent Pass Trail July 7.</p>
Glacier National Park had a busy June, with visitation 12 percent higher than the same month last year, according to recently released National Park Service statistics.
Overall visitation was up 6.3 percent for the first six months of the year, compared to the same period last year.
A total of 521,719 people have visited the park so far this year, with a whopping 351,090 of them entering Glacier during June.
Nearly every entrance station has seen more traffic, but most striking is the Polebridge entrance station, which had 15,060 visitors in June, more than double the 7,279 for the same month last year.
West Glacier was the busiest entrance station with 144,444 visitors during June. St. Mary had 75,132 visitors during the month.
Backcountry use in the park is also up this year significantly. About 2,300 people spent the night in Glacier Park’s backcountry this June, a nearly 30 percent increase over last year.
June 2012 was exceptionally wet, with more than 6 inches of rain in the Flathead Valley. June 2013 was drier and warmer.
Glacier’s statistics typically are released the first week after a month concludes, but the release of this June’s statistics was delayed well into July, a month that usually is the busiest of the year in the park.
That should hold true this year, largely because of the sunny weather in the park over the last few weeks.