Planning by panic in Glacier Park

The Inter Lake of Aug. 8 contains the headline, “Glacier visitation tops 1 million in July” — not much of a surprise for those who have visited this summer. What is a surprise is that after a July “emergency congestion management workshop,” park managers have decided to make matters dramatically worse at Logan Pass by imposing a one-hour time limit for 60 parking spaces. The stated intent is to provide an opportunity for people who want to make a quick restroom stop, take a few photos, and go for a short walk to be able to do so.

This sort of nonsense is what “Planning by Panic” gets you, and raises a number of issues. First, at a Logan Pass crammed to the gills by 9 a.m. with spots already reserved for 8-10 red buses and another five for park vehicles, who thought it was a good idea to give preferential treatment to 60 car loads of restroom-rushers and drive-by photographers/walkers?

Second, although I’ve used Logan Pass for over 25 years I’ve never witnessed this mythical 60 carloads of folks dashing for the restrooms and being shut out. What I have seen is the vast majority of users parking and setting off for multi-hour hikes, with Logan Pass the only trailhead for their destinations. Folks needing a restroom and great photos on the other hand, have numerous options both east and west of the pass while they wait for the pass to clear.

Third, has it occurred to the park that visitors, upon reading of their short-sighted plan, will arrive even earlier, parking will still fill up, and vehicles full of angry visitors will still be left circulating — this time past 60 mostly empty one-hour parking spaces. They’ll either leave fuming at park mismanagement, or violate the one-hour limit, requiring park rangers to spend scarce time issuing unnecessary tickets to a bunch of taxpayers. Either way, the park gets a well-deserved public-relations black eye entirely of their own making.

And finally, on what planet is it wise to hold an “emergency” workshop in July, when record visitation has been underway for three years, and then make an “emergency” decision to radically change Logan Pass parking in mid-August — smack in the middle of the busiest tourist season?

Here’s an alternate suggestion for the park. Take a deep breath, cancel this short-sighted decision immediately, and ride out the next couple of weeks until visitation begins to drop as kids have to be back to school and more adults must return to their jobs. Then, having avoided a self-imposed crisis, you can spend the fall and winter considering a range of better, more rational solutions as part of the ongoing study of the Going to the Sun Corridor and use levels. Who knows, you might even ask citizens what they think instead of “imposing” emergency decisions on them.

Peck is a resident of Columbia Falls.