Many Glacier set to be focus of Glacier Park projects in 2025

Visitors to Glacier National Park next summer should expect some changes, including selecting a time slot for a vehicle reservation and having limited access to Many Glacier.  

Superintendent Dave Roemer said it’s felt good to button up big projects like the repaving of the Going-to-the-Sun Road, but there’s more improvements to be made in other areas of the park like the Swiftcurrent area of Many Glacier, where upcoming projects include the construction on the Water Distribution System and road rehabilitation.  

The project will keep the area closed until spring of 2026. He said these infrastructure improvements are vital to keeping the area open for visitors in years to come.  

"You've got to have water, wastewater, electricity and roads for places where people go. We don't run them until they break, because then you get closures and that's a failure. So, in order to maintain a success, we're trying to phase these (projects) in the best way that we can,” Roemer said.  

Getting into Many Glacier will be a little harder in 2025 compared to previous years, as a large number of parking spaces will be unavailable due to construction. The Swiftcurrent area of the park will be closed, which includes the Many Glacier campground and Swiftcurrent Motor Inn, meaning parking for some of Glacier’s most popular trailheads will be unavailable.  

Despite that challenge, Roemer said officials have been discussing ideas to get visitors into the valley. The park will allow visitors to park further up the road, creating parking areas in pullouts, where people can board a shuttle to ride into Many Glacier.  

With so many of the park’s most popular trails being located in the valley, Roemer said it was important to provide access where possible. However, because there will be less parking available, ticketed entry was ruled out for Many Glacier.  

"What we're looking at instead is providing parking in different areas along the road and providing shuttle service to move people deeper into the valley from where they'll be parking their cars. And that's still under development, there's still a lot of details to work out, but we're hoping that we'll be able to make an announcement about that in January,” Roemer said. 

Visitors should still expect that the construction project will change the way they recreate Many Glacier in 2025, he noted.  

“It's going to be a different experience in the summer of 2025. It’s probably not the year to be based out of that area, and to have other areas in the park where you'd like to go. We still want to provide a good experience, we want to provide that opportunity and that access, but it's not going to be abundant, so I think there's going to be fewer people and fewer services available in the valley as a result of the limitations of this project,” he said.  

Other construction projects are on the horizon but haven’t been scheduled yet.  

“Some of these projects are a result of The Great American Outdoor Act, funding that passed in the first Trump administration. Over the last few years, that has been producing projects on the ground in parks like ours and it's addressing a lot of infrastructure needs that we have — and there's still more to go,” Roemer said. 

These future projects include improving the water and wastewater systems at Granite Park Chalet, as well as water systems in Two Medicine and at Lake McDonald Lodge. These projects are expected to occur over the next few years. 

He said the park will be trying to minimize how those projects will impact visitor experience by scheduling work outside of peak season, though many are still in development.  

CONSTRUCTION IS one way visitor experience is impacted in the park, and recently, Roemer and other park officials have been holding meetings asking the public for input on how to make improvements.  

Another hot topic in regard to how visitors experience the park is the pilot vehicle reservation system that was implemented in 2021. It’s received several tweaks since, like in 2023, when park officials took away ticket requirements for the St. Mary entrance of the Going-to-the-Sun Road and Two Medicine.  

Next year, park officials will be trying out time slots for ticketed entry for the west entrance of the Going-to-the-Sun Road and the North Fork area of the park, where officials have seen the most congestion. Roemer said many people have come up to park officials during recent public meetings to ask why the change was implemented. 

He said park officials look at what times people choose to come into the park with vehicle reservations, there is a bell curve distribution that shows most people come in around the same time of day.  

"We're trying to shave down that peak, because when that happens, cars get backed up inside the park and then spill out into West Glacier and onto U.S. 2,” Roemer said. “And it's been one of our goals in managing access to not have backups onto the highway. So, when we still see that, we know we haven't quite solved that problem yet.”  

He said the hope is by breaking ticketed entry into different time blocks it will spread out when people enter the park and lead to less congestion at the west entrance of the Sun Road.  

“It also might be a useful tool in the North Fork, where the use patterns are a little bit different there. A North Fork visitor is typically not a long day hiker so we might be able to provide a greater opportunity for more people to arrive and enjoy that area at the park by partitioning it into several different time blocks for arrival,” Roemer said.  

The time blocks are only for arrival, he noted, there is no time limit on how long a visitor can stay in the park.  

The park has held in-person meetings in Missoula, Polson, Browning and Columbia Falls this winter. While virtual meetings center around a presentation from Roemer and other park officials, the in-person meetings were much more open-ended, where people could ask questions or give suggestions.  

The Columbia Falls meeting was the most well-attended, he noted.  

“For two hours solid, I was in conversations with various people. It probably favors people that are local to come to those. But I always say, everyone loves Glacier, and so every conversation about the park begins from that broad agreement ... then there's always a focus on how can we make it better,” Roemer said. 

Changes made to the vehicle reservation system implemented in 2024 will stay in 2025, including the availability to purchase next day tickets at 7 p.m. 

“I've heard from a lot of people that have worked well for them, and it worked very well for us operationally. Providing access into Apgar Village without a vehicle reservation was very successful. Not everyone wants to come in and drive the whole park from end to end, but being able to visit Apgar Village and the shores of Lake McDonald is an enjoyable park experience,” he said.  

The change also affected management of the “corral,” an area where volunteers and park staff field questions at park headquarters about ticketed entry.   

Glacier National Park Volunteer Association Vice President Kathy Jensen coordinated volunteers for the corral. After a meeting in the spring with Elizabeth Maki, chief of interpretation at the park, she said it was decided volunteers would standby at the Apgar Visitor Center to help visitors without a reservation. 

Jensen said there’s still a great need for this kind of assistance. Park officials anticipated Apgar would be very busy and that visitors would still need help with vehicle reservations and other information.  

“I was instructed to keep it small to begin with since we were not sure of the scope of the project at that time. I recruited and scheduled previous experienced corral workers. As it turned out, eight of us contributed over 264 hours and interacted with nearly 4,000 visitors,” she said.  

There's also public Wi-Fi at the visitor center, which made it possible to help people to navigate the vehicle reservation system and how to access other park information. 

Jensen has worked the corral since its inception in 2021, first working at the Hungry Horse information station, then the corral for two years before making the move to the visitor center this year.  

She is hopeful that the time blocks required for next year’s ticketed entry could help alleviate a backup of vehicles. But she said from now on, visitors should expect to form a plan to visit the park.  

“Gone are the days when you can just jump in your car and think you don’t need to plan, so we can continue to get the word out. There is plenty of information on the website. Also being able to explore other parts of the park without a vehicle reservation is helpful,” she said. 

WHILE PARK officials and volunteers help visitors navigate the park from the Apgar Visitor Center, retail operations with the Glacier National Park Conservancy were busy racking up sales inside — all funds that go to benefit future park projects.  

The nonprofit is approaching a record breaking $4.1 million raised for park projects, according to Executive Director Doug Mitchell.  

Among 2025 projects planned is the School to Park program, which involves Columbia Falls High School students in the rebuilding of park buildings. Also slated is the reconstruction of the ranger cabin at Granite Park Chalet.  

“We continue to be inspired by the growth in the Native America Speaks program. We're also going to be making some great investments, thanks to some very generous donors, to do a major renovation and replacement of the structures for the Dusty Star Observatory in St. Mary to create really a permanent home for what is the largest scientific telescope in any national park,” Mitchell said. 

Other projects include focusing on sustainability issues, like the continuing effort to fund restoration of whitebark pine and the prevention of aquatic invasive species in park waters. As well as projects to increase accessibility in the park, like the work in Fish Creek Campground to replace crumbling asphalt paths with the installation of over 5,000 square feet of accessible trails.  For more information on 2025 projects in Glacier National Park, visit the Conservancy’s website at glacier.org/park-current-projects/.  

Reporter Taylor Inman can be reached at 406-758-4433 or by emailing tinman@dailyinterlake.com.