For the second time in its 110-year history, more than 3 million people have visited Glacier National Park in a single year.
This week, the National Park Service released figures showing that 3,034,702 people had visited Glacier Park through November, a 3 percent increase over last year but just short of 2017’s record-breaking 3.3 million people.
According to the park service, 20,008 people visited Glacier in November, a 3.1 percent drop from November 2018.
Earlier this year, visitation in Glacier Park had been relatively flat, reflecting a nationwide trend. But the numbers began to tick up during the summer. Visitation in August and September helped buck that trend because, for the first time in three years, the park did not have a major fire to contend with. In 2017, the Sprague Fire shut down part of the park and destroyed the beloved Sperry Chalet, and in 2018, the Howe Ridge Fire forced a large evacuation of the Lake McDonald Valley.