Mild May means surge of Glacier Park visitors

Glacier National Park recorded the second-highest May visitation in the park’s history last month, up 20 percent from the same month last year.

Last month, an estimated 134,741 visitors poured into the park, just shy of the 137,220 visitors recorded in May 2007.

Park spokeswoman Katie Liming said Tuesday that park officials estimate visitation through vehicle counts that are multiplied by an average number of visitors per vehicle.

The west entrance has been the busiest entry point for visitors, with 81,493 in May (up 48.9 percent from the same month a year ago).

The park’s year-to-date visitor total is outpacing 2014’s visitation by 29.1 percent.

Through May, Glacier’s visitor count is 227,767 people, compared to 176,421 for the first five months of 2014.

2014 was the busiest year in Glacier’s history with 2.3 million visitors despite a heavy, lingering winter that kept Logan Pass closed to vehicles until July 3.

Park officials have not yet set an opening date for this year but have said it could open by June 19, weather permitting. Plowing crews are finishing up the last elements of Going-to-the-Sun Road clearing.

This year, a warmer-than-average spring and a relatively early plowing of the park’s low-elevation roads has brought scores of hikers and bicyclists into the park over the past couple of months.

Only 15.5 miles of the Sun Road on the west side is open to vehicles, but hikers and bikers can venture all the way up to Logan Pass when plow crews aren’t working.

One of the major goals of the park’s ongoing planning effort for the Sun Road corridor is to figure out how to deal with the possibility of a longer tourist season due to future climate change impacts.

Park Deputy Superintendent Kym Hall said at a public meeting last week that traffic in the world-renowned park has increased exponentially over the past couple of decades and a wide range of options is being considered to mitigate the impacts of sustained increases in visitation.

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