Glacier Park visits surge in October

Daily Inter Lake

Fire, snow and road closures couldn’t keep visitors away from Glacier National Park last month.

In its recently released visitation report, the park logged a total of 84,469 visitors, 11.4 percent more than October 2016.

Due to wildfire activity, most of Going-to-the-Sun Road on the west side of the park was closed through Oct. 21 when it finally reopened to the Avalanche area.

The park broke its previous yearly attendance record last month. The year-to-date visitation numbers now stand at 3,276,651, well above the 2.9 million who had come this time last year.

This year’s strong numbers may be driven by Parks Canada’s decision to waive entry fees this year for all national parks in Canada, in honor of the Dominion of Canada’s 150th anniversary. Canadians who come to visit Waterton, the theory goes, also decide to see Glacier.

The park’s most popular entry point for visitors in October was the West Entrance with 40,958 visitors, followed by Saint Mary’s with 13,355 visitors.

Even as overall visits surged in October, overnight stays plunged by 83 percent from last year.