Strong start for Glacier visitation

Glacier National Park registers only about one-tenth of its annual visitation during the first five months of the year, but if the early numbers are any indicator, the park is on track for another historically crowded year.

More than a quarter of a million people entered Glacier during the first five months of 2017, according to the National Park Service estimate. That’s the second-highest total in park history for that time period, second only to the first five months of 2016.

And last month’s 177,256 visitors to Glacier was similarly the second-busiest May in park history — down 13.2 percent from last year.

Park spokesman Lauren Alley said Tuesday that the year-to-year dip may in part be explained by this year’s notably rainy spring in Northwest Montana.

“Locals can make that decision on Saturday morning, if it’s raining they might do something else, but if it’s sunny they can head up to the park,” Alley said.

But, she added, “Interestingly, even though we were down in visitation in May, the last 10 days of May we had a 50 percent increase in visitation over 2016 for that same 10-day period.”

Compared to last year, Glacier saw a year-to-date drop in visitation for each of the eight entrance stations that compile monthly visitation statistics, based on the number of cars entering the park. While the numbers at the St. Mary entrance decreased by 27.5 percent, West Glacier’s year-to-date visitation has nearly kept pace with last year’s historic crowds, with this year’s 168,345 visitors representing just a 3.8 percent drop.

Much remains to be seen for Glacier visitation this year. Over the past 10 years, the park’s visitation during the first five months of the year amounted to just under one-tenth of the total for the year, on average. The peak tourism season, from June through September, typically draws about 85 percent of the total.

“As we’ve seen with visitation over the last decade, anything is possible,” Alley said. “It’s a little hard to predict, based on spring numbers, what the summer will hold.”

In 2017, nearly 3 million people entered the park for its third straight year of record-breaking crowds. The deluge of visitors broke the previous year’s record by more than a half-million, a spike that park officials partly attribute to the National Park Service’s broadly advertised centennial celebration.

Last year was one for the record books throughout the tourist season, breaking previous high-water marks for visits within any single month and over the summer season, as well as the busiest-ever single-month totals for each month from April through September.

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