Visitors flock to Glacier in July

Glacier National Park has just completed its busiest July ever, with 699,650 people entering the park, according to the National Park Service Statistics Office.

That outpaces the previous July record in 1983 when there were 689,489 recreational visitors.

The statistics office keeps monthly visitation records going back to 1979. The third-busiest July was in Glacier’s centennial year of 2010 with 673,359 visitors.

The busy July this year marks an 8.4-percent increase over the same month a year ago.

The record July helped propel the park’s year-to-date visitor count to 1,210,145, which is 4.6 percent ahead of the seven-month total in 2013.

 Balmy weather surely played a part in so many people visiting the park in July, just as rainy weather contributed to a drop in the June visitor count compared to last year.

The West Entrance logged 306,319 visitors in July, up 6.8 percent from 2013.

The Two Medicine entrance station had the biggest percentage increase from last year — 38.5 percent, as 60,193 people visited in July 2014.

The Park Service reported a 5.3 percent decline in overall overnight stays in Glacier so far this year. The biggest percentage declines were 15 percent in backcountry overnight stays, 7 percent in RV stays, and 8 percent in developed campground tent camping.