Glacier visitation numbers strong

Despite the east side of Going-to-the-Sun Road’s ongoing closure due to the Reynolds Creek Fire, Glacier National Park is still on pace to break last year’s record visitation, according to a report released by the National Park Service on Thursday.

The park had its second-busiest July this year, with an estimated 689,064 visits, for a total of 1.34 million visitors logged through the end of the month. July 1983 barely hung onto the record, with 689,489 visitors. That year set an overall visitation record which stood until 2014, when 2.3 million visitors crowded into Glacier.

Visitation numbers are estimates based on the number of vehicles entering the park.

Earlier this summer, the park set a visitation record in June when an estimated 414,671 people checked out the Crown of the Continent’s scenic centerpiece, putting overall visitation on a pace to overtake last year’s end-of-year record. As of the end of last month, Glacier increased visitation by 11.3 percent compared with last year. An estimated 1.43 million people have passed through the park’s gates this year.

July is normally the park’s busiest month, although many years have seen bigger crowds in August.

The St. Mary entrance station, at the eastern terminus of Going-to-the-Sun Road, posted a predictable drop in visitation, as that side of the road is currently open only as far into the park as the St. Mary Campground. Visitors using that entrance last month dropped 21.4 percent compared with last year.

However, the adjacent entrances on the east side of the park all saw increased July visitation over the previous year. Visitation at the Many Glacier and Two Medicine entrances increased 3 percent and 12.5 percent, respectively. The Cut Bank entrance, which uses a rougher estimate because it lacks an entrance station, held steady with last July, at 3,000 estimated visitors.

The West Glacier entrance, responsible for the lion’s share of visits to the park, received an estimated 313,784 visitors, a 2.4 percent increase from last year. At the Camas and Polebridge entrances, visitation was similarly up 18.3 and 14.7 percent, respectively.

Any impacts the Sun Road’s partial closure may be having on overall visitation could be reversed in the near future. Park officials this week announced they plan to reopen the full extent of the road before the end of summer, although that reopening is contingent on firefighter progress at the Reynolds Creek Fire. Only when crews are finished removing hazards along the road will the wildfire management team consider allowing public travel through the fire-scarred corridor.

Reporter Samuel Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.