Glacier Park seeks input to improve visitor experience

Glacier National Park is holding a series of meetings to gather input on the future of how visitors access and travel around the park, including the North Fork, Many Glacier, Two Medicine, and Going-to-the-Sun Road.  

The park is sharing initial ideas for addressing traffic congestion, visitor movement challenges, transportation, and related issues that affect visitor experience and park resources that will be used to inform a long-term plan. The public is invited to provide comments through Jan. 6, 2025. 

Over the past two decades, annual visitation at Glacier National Park has increased from approximately 1.5 million to around 3 million. Much of this use is concentrated along the Sun Road corridor and other front-country destinations during the peak season of June through August.   

Different pilot reservation systems were implemented in summers 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, and the park will again pilot a reservation system in 2025. The pilots were initiated in summer 2021 as a response to increasing issues with traffic congestion, including backups onto U.S.  2, infrastructure capacity, and impacts to park resources from high concentrations of people in the most popular areas of the park. Prior to piloting reservation systems, the park relied on temporary and unplanned closures of parking lots, park roads, or entire valleys to mitigate vehicle congestion.  

The vehicle reservation pilots have provided the park with opportunities to proactively manage vehicle congestion to improve the predictability of visitor access and reduce congestion, thereby improving visitor experiences and protecting park resources.  Public feedback and monitoring data were used to inform the initial ideas being presented for feedback. 

“It is our collective priority to provide a park experience at Glacier that is enjoyable and safe,” said Park Superintendent Dave Roemer. “We have learned a lot by piloting solutions, listening to feedback, and adapting on an annual basis. Now, we want to start the conversation of what a long-term plan looks like at the park. Everywhere I go, I hear so much passion and pride in Glacier. I hope that everyone will take this opportunity to share their input.” 

The public can visit the project website to submit input at https://tinyurl.com/3s6sskph.  This site also provides a summary of key issues, project goals, the history of visitation, transportation and vehicle reservations in the park, and the initial ideas for the park’s long-term plan.  

There are several upcoming opportunities to learn more about the planning process and ask park staff questions.  

Two virtual public meetings will be held, both with the same information.  

The first is on Nov. 21 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Access the meeting through parkplanning.nps.gov/MeetingNotices.cfm?projectID=118357.  
The second is on Dec. 16 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. parkplanning.nps.gov/MeetingNotices.cfm?projectID=118357.
In-person drop-in meetings will also be held.  

An open house from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Dec. 3 will be at the KwaTaqNuk Resort & Casino in Polson.  
On Dec. 4, an open house is from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Cedar Creek Lodge in Columbia Falls.