Glacier hits new high for June visitation

Halfway through 2016, Glacier National Park is on track for a third straight year of record visitation after 429,909 people filed through its gates in June — setting a single-month record.

The National Park Service estimate for June visitation is a 3.7 percent increase over the same month last year, which had shattered the previous record by 12 percent.

Through June, 698,505 visitors have entered the park this year, an 8.7 percent increase over the first six months of 2015.

Visitors entering via the St. Mary entrance in June increased by nearly 50 percent compared to last year, when construction work kept much of Going-to-the-Sun Road’s east side closed to traffic part of the month.

Park spokeswoman Margie Steigerwald attributed the year-to-year increase to vehicle access as far up as Jackson Glacier Overlook while crews finished plowing snow from Logan Pass.

On the west side, the West Glacier entrance count was down more than 20 percent while Polebridge visitation shot up to almost 10,000 visitors last month, a 22 percent increase over 2015.

Most of the other entrances that track visitation were up or down only slightly, with the exception of Many Glacier, where the 54,455 visitors amounted to a 13 percent increase.

Overnight stays at the park’s concessionaire-run lodges dipped 8.2 percent compared with last June, but have decreased only slightly overall this year.

Businesses outside the park also benefit from spikes in visitation. Glacier Park International Airport recently announced it broke its all-time record for June passengers this year, its fifth single-month record so far in 2016.

June marks the start of Glacier’s busy season, when Going-to-the-Sun Road typically opens to traffic along with most of the park’s campgrounds.

The first five months of the year only attract about 10 percent of the park’s annual visitors, while more than 85 percent of annual visitation has occurred from June through September in all but one of the last 10 years.

This year’s surge in visitors continues the trend of Glacier’s increasing popularity, and is likely bolstered by the National Park Service’s widely advertised centennial.

Other park units throughout the country are reporting similar increases; Yellowstone National Park’s midyear visitation is up 10 percent after it also set its all-time record in 2015. Yosemite and Grand Canyon national parks are also attracting crowds at a record-breaking pace.

That comes as no surprise to Glacier Superintendent Jeff Mow, who has for months made clear that he expects this year’s visitation totals to eclipse the 2.36 million people who swarmed through the park’s gates in 2015.

“We expect a significant increase, barring fires or floods this year,” Mow said in an interview last month. “I think we will see about a 20 percent increase this year.”

Until the Northwest’s brutal fire season put a damper on the end of last year’s tourist season, Glacier had been on track for a significantly higher visitor total.

Mow admits the park’s staff was ill-prepared for that type of surge last year, and he spent much of the off-season formulating strategy with his park rangers, interpretive guides and partners in nearby communities.

Visitors talking with park staffers this year likely will hear information about attractions outside Glacier’s borders, which Mow hopes will ease the burden on hot spots such as Avalanche and Logan Pass while boosting business throughout the region.

“Glacier is just the tip of the iceberg when you talk about the Crown of the Continent landscape,” Mow said.

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