Glacier Park tops visitor mark

With three months left in the year, Glacier National Park already has had the busiest year in its history.

Through September, Glacier had 2,238,761 visitors, topping the 2,200,048 visitors for all of 2010, which the park considers the busiest year in its 104-year history.

September’s visitor count of 353,497 pushed Glacier above the all-time mark.

August and July were peak months for park visitors, with record highs of  675,119 visitors in August and 699,650 visitors in July.

Compared to last year, Glacier’s visitor count is up 4.7 percent through September.

During September, 162,065 people entered Glacier through the West Entrance. St. Mary had 74,346 visitors and Many Glacier 53,089.

Overnight stays were down 8.3 percent for the month: 49,273 people stayed overnight, compared to 53,706 last year.

Backcountry overnight stays rose from 2,700 last September to 5,757 in September 2014.