Glacier visitation down slightly over 2019

Tickets or not, it was still a very busy summer in Glacier National Park, though not as busy as 2019, the last year the park was fully open.

The Park Service last week reported an estimated 2,35 million visitors through August in Glacier.

Visitation parkwide year-to-date through August was 3.8% lower than 2019. While Going-to-the-Sun Road vehicle entry decreased this year, alternate entrances to the park saw increased visitation, resulting in frequent closures. Vehicle entry during June through August at Two Medicine was up almost 33%, the highest on record, and the North Fork almost 20% over 2019 numbers.

Two Medicine from June through August saw 193,289 visitors, while Polebridge through the same time period saw 70,766 visitors, which was much higher than 2019, but a bit lower than 2020, when 72,571  visitors went through the gates.

Polebridge actually saw its most visitors in 2017, when 82,266 visited, according to figures provided last week.

The summer numbers for July and August, which typically come out a couple of weeks after the month ends were delayed because a traffic counter at Many Glacier malfunctioned due to road construction.

The problem has since been fixed, but the point is moot now, the Many Glacier Valley closed on Sept. 19 to let crews wrap up road construction.

There is no hiker-biker access, either. Crews are expected to wrap up work in November.

While Two Medicine and the North Fork saw the proverbial “squeeze” from the ticketed entry system, Glacier officials estimate they would have had to close the Sun Road at the West Entrance at least 35 times over the summer without it.

An average of 19% of vehicles arrived at the West Glacier and St. Mary entrances without a Going-to-the-Sun entry ticket or other reservation between Memorial Day and Labor Day. This number continued to trend downward and was closer to 14% at season’s end. Every diverted visitor was provided an opportunity to speak to a park ranger and receive information on how to experience the park without a ticket, the Park said.

Now that the pilot ticketed entry program has ended, congestion on Going-to-the-Sun Road is being managed through temporary closures of the West Entrance as necessary. The West Entrance has had three closures, on Sept. 7, 8, and 14 since the ticketed entry program ended.


Park officials will use the information gathered during the 2021 pilot to determine how to move forward in 2022. The park is holding discussions with stakeholders and hopes to announce a decision by late fall, it said in a release.