Glacier sets new visitation record in June

June continues to be a record-breaking month in Glacier National Park, with visitation up 28 percent compared to this time last year.

In June, the number of Glacier visitors totaled 620,962.

Visitation in June has nearly doubled over the last 10 years. In June 2007, there were 341,317 visitors compared to this year’s record 620,962.

Park shuttle ridership has also increased. Ten days into the free shuttle’s operational season, ridership had increased by 6,829 people over 2016 levels, for a total of 30,644 riders as of July 10.

With increased visitation comes extremely crowded conditions in all areas of the park, which is expected to continue over the summer season.

“In the past, much of our visitation has been attributed to the opening of the Going-to-the-Sun Road. However, this year the Going-to-the-Sun Road opened 12 days later than in 2016 and we still saw a dramatic increase,” park Superintendent Jeff Mow said in a press release.

For the first time over the Fourth of July weekend, park rangers had to initiate a temporary, one-hour emergency closure of the Many Glacier Valley due to traffic gridlock in hotel and trailhead parking areas and access roads.

Visitors should plan for crowded conditions and waiting periods for parking, particularly during peak times of day. Early morning and later evening continue to offer less crowded opportunities to visit the park during the summer months.

Bowman and Kintla Lake parking areas have routinely been full by 10 or 11 a.m. Logan Pass parking is regularly full between 9 and 10 a.m. Avalanche Creek, Apgar Village, and Apgar Visitor Center parking lots are full by morning or early afternoon.

In the North Fork area and other areas of the park, rangers are temporarily restricting traffic on an as-needed basis to ensure that roads and parking areas remain accessible to emergency vehicles and do not become gridlocked.

People can learn more about when campgrounds have filled in the past day by visiting the park website.

The park is posting when parking lots are full in addition to other information about real-time park conditions at twitter.com/glacierNPS.

For alerts or more information visit www.nps.gov/glac/.