Officials deem changes to Glacier National Park's reservation system this year a success

Dropping the reservation requirement to enter Glacier National Park from the St. Mary entrance this summer helped disperse traffic throughout the park, officials say.  

2024 was the fourth year of Glacier National Park's pilot vehicle reservation system. In 2023, the entrances on the Going-to-the-Sun Road as well as the North Fork, Many Glacier and Two Medicine required ticketed entry in addition to a normal park pass.  

Park officials opted this year to move the ticket checkpoint farther past the west entrance, giving visitors access to Apgar without a reservation. They also decided to drop reservation requirements for Two Medicine and the St. Mary entrance of the Going-to-the-Sun Road in hopes that it would encourage visitors to pick different routes into the park.  

Data from the National Park Service shows visitors took them up on it. People entering through the St. Mary gates increased by 23% in August 2024 compared to the same month in 2023 (188,194 in 2024 and 152,702 in 2023).  

Park spokeswoman Gina Icenoggle said in an email that though there were more people coming through that side of the park, officials didn’t see any congestion issues or gate closures of the St. Mary entrance. There were points of confusion, though. Some visitors who came in that way were later surprised when they couldn’t reenter through the west side without a ticket.  

She said the west side entrance continues to be the park’s most popular. There were 347,522 visitors who came through the 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.  

July was the busiest month in the park with nearly 791,717 visitors compared to 549,591 in June and 748,996 in August. 

Data for September has not yet been made available. 

While reservation requirements were also dropped at Two Medicine, the valley did not see an influx of visitors. In July, there were 57,346 visitors coming through that entrance compared to 52,691 in July 2023, according to visitation data. A similar increase can be seen in the month of August, with just over 50,000 visitors this year as compared to 48,197 in 2023. 

Ticketed entry became required for the Two Medicine entrance in 2023 following a summer of multiple gate closures due to congestion in 2022. Icenoggle credits the reduction in traffic restrictions there to visitors choosing to go through the St. Mary entrance to see the Going-to-the-Sun Road.    

Icenoggle said they view moving up the ticketed entry checkpoint on the west side as a success as visitors enjoyed access to park shuttles and the Apgar Visitor Center without needing a vehicle reservation.  

There was also positive feedback regarding the option to get a next day reservation starting 7 p.m. the night before versus looking at 8 a.m. the day before — the only option available for trying to get a ticket on short notice the last two seasons, according to Icenoggle.   

Overcrowding remained a source of consternation, though. Icenoggle said there were parking and congestion issues following the end of the vehicle reservation period on Sept. 8, particularly in Many Glacier.  

She said there were also multiple closures in the North Fork for Bowman Lake due to congestion, though other areas of the North Fork remained open. The North Fork area has had congestion issues throughout the last few years — vehicle reservations were introduced in 2022 following 87 closures in 2021. 

The North Fork is less developed than other areas in the park and its two main attractions, Bowman and Kintla lakes, have limited parking and camping.  

More month-by-month visitation data from Glacier National Park can be found at irma.nps.gov/Stats/.  

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