Glacier on track for record year

The August numbers are in, and it appears Glacier National Park is on track for a record year for visitation.

A total of 1,809,340 people entered the park during the first eight months of the year, 11 percent more than the 1,630,000 visitors during the same period last year, according to the National Park Service's Public Use Statistics Office.

August numbers were up 16.8 percent over last year with 632,971 visitors, bringing the total number of summer visitors to 1.64 million during June, July and August.

July has been the busiest month this year with 673,359 visitors.

The overall trend for the park's centennial year puts Glacier on pace to come close to 1983, the busiest year on record, when the park attracted 2,203,847 visitors.

According to park spokeswoman Amy Vanderbilt, this year's numbers through August could exceed 1983's because the Park Service applies a lower per-person multiplier to each vehicle that enters the park than it did 27 years ago.

"Certainly, by our numbers in June and July and what we experienced in August we have every reason to believe this is going to be one of the best years if not the largest we've ever had," Glacier Superintendent Chas Cartwright said. "That certainly appears to be the direction we are heading."

Cartwright said he believes the park's multiple centennial events, attractions and programs played a part in attracting people.

"We expected a good year and I think that the centennial certainly was a great opportunity for people to reconnect with the park," he said. "It was that combination of lots of things going on in the park and in the surrounding communities, and people realizing that national parks offer a very reasonably priced vacation."

Cartwright remarked that the park was busy despite major reconstruction work and traffic delays on the alpine section of Going-to-the-Sun Road.

When the multiyear project was being planned, there were deep concerns in neighboring business communities that the traffic delays would deter people from going to Glacier.

"What I see is ... a lot of people getting out of their cars and enjoying the scenery," Cartwright said.

For the first eight months of the year, Glacier had increases in all of its statistical categories.

Concessions lodging was up 3.9 percent; tent overnight stays were up 2.7 percent; recreation vehicle overnight stays were up .5 percent; backcountry overnight stays were up 7.6 percent; group camping increased 52 percent; and total overnight stays increased by 3 percent.

August's visitor surge was led by an increase of 21.3 percent at the St. Mary entrance station. There were 193,549 visitors at the main east-side gate in August, compared to 159,603 in 2009.

The Polebridge entrance station also had a substantial increase in visitors in August, from 11,389 in 2009 to 29,532 in 2010.

The busiest Glacier entrance station at West Glacier attracted 271,097 visitors last month, an increase of 1.6 percent over last year.