October visitation to Glacier up by 9 percent over last year
A head lamp leaves a trail of light to campsite in Glacier National Park in a timed exposure.
Visitation to Glacier National Park was up in October by nearly 9 percent over the previous year.
The Park saw just under 92,000 visitors this October compared to 84,469 last year.
The West entrance saw a 27 percent jump, while the Saint Mary and Many Glacier entrances actually saw declines of 12 and 27.8 percent respectively.
The east side of the Park saw heavy snow earlier in October, which temporarily shut down the Many Glacier Road and the east side of the Going-to-the-Sun Road.
Logan Pass closed earlier than expected as well.
To date, Glacier has seen 2.925 million visitors, which is down 10.7 percent over last year’s 3.27 million. Last year was an all-time record.
Even so, Glacier is on pace to see its second or third most visitors ever — in 2016 it saw 2.946 million visitors. In the past three years, visitation to Glacier has surged considerably. From 2000 to 2015, visitation was as low as 1.68 million in 2001 to as high as 2.366 million in 2015.
Relatively cheap gas, a strong economy and plenty of promotion and press have all been factors in boosting the Park’s visitation in recent years.