Glacier National Park to introduce timed vehicle reservations in 2025
The snow-dusted peak of Glacier National Park's Mount Saint Nicholas rises behind a larch-covered hillside along U.S. Highway 2 on Wednesday, Oct. 23. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
Next year, Glacier National Park visitors who go through the west entrance of Going-to-the-Sun Road and the North Fork will be required to enter during a designated time block during ticketed entry.
The park will be piloting the timed reservation plan for those areas next year when ticketed entry begins on June 13, officials said in a press release Thursday. Visitors will enter the park according to the time block they have reserved and can remain in the park for as long as they like on the day of their reservation.
Visitors who miss their reserved time block can enter after 3 p.m. Multiple time blocks will be available between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Park officials said additional information regarding time blocks will be announced later.
Glacier National Park first implemented a vehicle reservation system four years ago in an effort to manage crowding. Due to visitor feedback, the system was altered for 2024 to remove reservation requirements at the east entrance of the Sun Road and at Two Medicine.
“Within that successful framework we are going to try timed entry to see if we can minimize congestion, optimize visitor arrival and improve visitor experiences,” Glacier National Park Superintendent Dave Roemer said Thursday. “Timed entry has proven to be a valuable tool in other popular national parks and should reduce congestion and wait times at the West Entrance to Going-to-the-Sun Road.”
Other national parks, like Arches in Utah and Yosemite in California, already used a time-entry system.
There were 347,522 visitors who came through Glacier’s west entrance in August of this year compared to 307,604 in August 2023, according to National Park Service statistics.
That aligns with an overall increase in visitation in 2024. Nearly 2.4 million people visited the park through August of this year versus nearly 2.2 million in August 2023.
Month-to-month data shows that nearly every area of the park saw at least a small increase due to this rise in visitation.
One timed entry reservation per vehicle will be required to travel the Sun Road beyond the Apgar Village area and at the North Fork entrance from June 13 through Sept. 28, 2025, from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Visitors can enter before 7 a.m. or after 3 p.m. without a vehicle reservation.
As in 2024, vehicle reservations will not be required to enter Two Medicine Valley or the St. Mary entrance to Going-to-the-Sun Road next year. The Swiftcurrent area of Many Glacier Valley will be closed to public access during the summer of 2025 due to ongoing construction. The closure will greatly reduce the amount of available parking in Many Glacier Valley. Park officials said they are currently researching access alternatives for the valley in 2025.
Vehicle reservations will only be available on Recreation.gov. Each of the specified areas of the park will require a separate reservation. The cost associated with booking a reservation is a $2 processing fee.
A portion of reservations will be available 120 days or approximately four months in advance, starting on Feb. 12, 2025, at 8 a.m. MST on a rolling basis.
The remaining vehicle reservations will be available at 7 p.m. MDT for next-day entry starting on June 12, 2025.
In addition to a vehicle reservation, each vehicle entering the park is required to have an entrance pass for any entry point into the park.