Goat Lick gets a new, wider overlook at Glacier National Park

The Goat Lick Overlook in Glacier National Park along U.S. Highway 2 was completely rebuilt, making it more accessible.

The Glacier National Park Volunteer Associates funded the $18,000 project and provided volunteer labor for its 25th anniversary signature project. Over the course of the project, about 10 volunteers helped out. The organization was founded in 1989 and is an official Park partner. It works cooperatively with the park to accomplish projects that may not be completed due to insufficient funding or competing priorities. In the past year, the nonprofit has donated about $7,000 toward remodeling and updating the Apgar Nature Center and more than $8,000 for the backcountry ranger intern program.

“Our group tries to support activities in the Park that are related to education, and refurbishing and maintenance of historical places,” Volunteer Associates President Cheryl Klein, said.

The Goat Lick site fit their goals as an organization.

The reconstruction was finished at the end of September. The finished overlook is three feet wider, essentially doubling the space to make it wheelchair accessible. It will allow room for wheelchairs to turn around, Klein said. They dug a couple feet into the mountainside and poured concrete to support the new decking. In the spring when the Park trail crew returns, it will also have a six-foot wide wood bench.

The original overlook was built in 1981. Its decking and substructure were made from railroad ties that had since started rotting, creating a safety concern, Klein said. The pickets in the original fence along the downhill side were thin spindles. The new thicker pickets along with the posts and crossbars will make it a much stronger structure, she said.

The project was planned for after Labor Day because there are fewer visitors at that time of year, Klein said. They started painting lumber over a month ago, but the Sheep Fire delayed the project until mid-September.

The lumber for the project was purchased from Columbia Falls Western Building Center and RBM Lumber. Volunteers prepared it in the maintenance yard behind Park Headquarters. They painted it with two coats, and then used a generator and saw on site to cut them to size. A final coat touched up these cut pieces.

“We swing the brush a little bit, don’t we?” volunteer Dan Goehring joked.

In addition to painting, they added two decorative routed channels to each picket. This task is a “simple little thing” to make the fence look nice, Goehring said. He uses his construction skills from the previous jobs to help out the association.

They also added a retaining wall and a second handrail against the upslope that wasn’t part of the original overlook.

Part of the reason for this is to discourage visitors from leaving the trail to get a closer view of the animals.

Goat Lick is a busy destination for visitors. About 80,000 to 90,000 visit it every year. Last year was a standout year with over 100,000 visitors. Mountain goats visit the site most often between April and August.

They travel from higher elevations to access the potassium, magnesium and calcium in the exposed cliffs of the Middle Fork of the Flathead.