Glacier National Park saw fewer visitors in August
A line of vehicles waiting to enter Glacier National Park extends to the bridge over the Middle Fork of the Flathead River in West Glacier on Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Visitation in Glacier National Park continued its downward trend in August as the park saw nearly 21,000 fewer visitors in the month than it did a year ago.
Overall, it was the sixth month the park has seen fewer visitors this year than in 2021.
Discounting the pandemic year of 2020, the park saw its lowest numbers in August since 2015 when 579,007 came through the gates.
The slow August has left park visitation down 6.06% from last year overall with 2,217,701 visitors so far in 2022. That’s down from 2,360,772 at this point last year.
The West Entrance saw a drop of only 5,340 from last year’s numbers with the Going-to-the-Sun Road reservation system in effect since May 27 and a nightly construction closure of the road since June 1. The Walton/Goat Lick area, meanwhile, saw a drop of close to 31,000 visitors compared to August 2021.
The east side of the park saw a substantial uptick in visitors as St. Mary drew 143,509 visitors, up from 124,175 a year ago. Two Medicine was up by nearly 7,500 visitors and Many Glacier saw an increase of 9,000 visitors compared to August 2021.