Holiday traffic to Glacier Park backs up for miles

Traffic at Glacier National Park’s west entrance over the weekend might be one for the history books.

Visitor Ethan Smith told the Hungry Horse News that on Saturday the traffic was so bad that it was backed up to Montana Raft Co. on Highway 2 by 10 a.m.

He said a motorist told them that the park was turning people around at the west entrance and not letting any more people in.

Being a former resident, he knew he could drive up the North Fork Road and he then entered by the Camas Road. He said he and his family got to Avalanche Creek, where they were turned around by rangers who were restricting traffic up the highway because there were already too many vehicles.

Smith said they then got up early Sunday morning to hike at Logan Pass, but by 7:15 a.m. Logan Pass was full.

This time, he said, they were apparently behind the closures, as there were comparatively few vehicles on the road and plenty of parking.

The Going-to-the-Sun Road was closed for two hours on Sunday morning due to a car accident between Goose Curve and the West side tunnel.

The one-vehicle crash required one person be airlifted to the hospital and another was taken by ground ambulance, park spokeswoman Gina Kerzman confirmed on Monday.

Kerzman confirmed access to the west entrance was restricted for an hour of Friday, four hours on Saturday and then Sunday due to the wreck. Then on Monday the road was closed down to Avalanche Creek because of snow and ice on the higher elevations due to a storm. Traffic was restricted Monday as well.

The higher elevations are still closed as of Tuesday morning.

Any sort of accident will snarl traffic on the road, as it’s often impossible to route traffic around a wreck. This year is even worse, as there’s no through traffic on the highway due to the east side being closed due to coronavirus concerns on the Blackfeet Reservation.

Fewer people are flying to the area, which means that many visitors have driven here and traffic is sometimes worse than a normal year, as the west entrance and the Camas Roads are the only way to access the Going-to-the-Sun Road this year.

The Park is considering a reservation system in the future to control traffic. It almost enacted one this summer, but area businesses said it would have too great an impact on a tourist season that was cut short this spring by coronavirus restrictions.

Smith said the Park Service should have done more to warn people the road was closed, with signage or other warnings along the highway, but Kerzman noted those are state signs, and not owned by the Park Service.

The best way to see real time information is to check Glacier's website or its Twitter account. The Park updates traffic reports on Twitter frequently.