Glacier Park visitor count up 25.8 percent
<p><strong>Luis Alvarez</strong>, 13, and his sister Maria, 11, of Galicia, Spain, play the piano in the Interlaken Lounge at the Many Glacier Hotel on June 16, in Glacier National Park. Glacier had record visitation during June. (Brenda Ahearn/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
The popularity of Glacier National Park keeps soaring, with record June visitation adding to an already-busy year for the park.
A total of 414,671 people visited Glacier during June, easily surpassing the previous high of 370,232 people in June 2003.
So far this year, Glacier has welcomed 642,438 visitors — a 25.8 percent increase over 2014, which was the busiest year in the park’s 105-year history.
The visitor surge came during a month that was the hottest June in history in Northwest Montana and included an earlier-than-normal opening of Going-to-the-Sun Road through Glacier Park.
Glacier also welcomed its 100 millionth visitor in June.
Still ahead are July and August, the months when Glacier hosts the majority of its visitors. Last year nearly 1.4 million people visited during those two months and Glacier went on to record a total of 2.3 million visitors for the year.
2015 is well ahead of that pace.
For the first six months this year, Glacier has recorded 131,943 more visitors than the same period in 2014.
The West Entrance continues to see the lion’s share of visitors with 338,489 entering at West Glacier — a 36.6 percent increase over the first half of 2014.
June statistics for Glacier also show a sharp increase in overnight stays — a total of 67,225 compared to 51,344 a year ago.
Backcountry overnight stays more than doubled from 1,815 to 3,900. Tent overnight stays were up 72 percent and recreational-vehicle overnight stays increased 38 percent over June 2014.
Weather may have been a big factor in Glacier’s increased numbers.
June 2015 was not only hot but also dry, with 27 straight rainless days in the Flathead Valley.
Contrast that with June 2014 when 5.24 inches of rain fell and Going-to-the-Sun Road over Logan Pass was kept closed until early July by a heavy, lingering winter in the high country.
This year, Sun Road opened to Logan Pass from the west side on June 11 and from the east side on June 19.