Park visitation cut in half for October

With a government shutdown blocking tourists from entering Glacier National Park for half the month, visitation at the Park was down sharply in October. The government shutdown closed the Park from Oct. 1 to Oct. 16.

According to National Park Service statistics, visitation for October was down 52 percent overall. About 26,000 people turned the gates this past October, compared to 54,000 last year.

Even with the shutdown, visitation for the year was 1.4 percent higher than last year. Through October, the Park saw 2.164 million visitors, compared to 2.136 million last year.

The Park’s east side saw the greatest drop in visitors. Reconstruction work on the Going-to-the-Sun Road, coupled with the shutdown, limited access to much of the area, and only 2,492 visitors entered at St. Mary in October.

Many Glacier and Two Medicine also saw sharp drops, as snow in both of those of those valleys in late October.