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Glacier Park

Going-to-the-Sun Road Reservations Slated to Go Online March 2

Reservations to Glacier National Park’s entrances at West Glacier, St. Mary and Polebridge will again be required this year from May 27 through Labor Day

By Tristan Scott
The Logan Pass parking lot on July 13, 2020. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead Beacon

Glacier National Park officials on Friday announced that advanced reservations will become available to visitors online beginning March 2. The reservations will be required for motorists to access the famed Going-to-the-Sun Road corridor during the busy summer season, as well as for those who wish to access the park’s remote North Fork area.

Similar to last year, the reservations will be available through the park’s online portal at recreation.gov starting at 6 a.m. (MST) on March 2 and will be required at both eastern and western entrances to the Sun Road from May 27 to Sept. 11. New this year, a separate reservation will also be required to access the North Fork area via the Polebridge Entrance Station; however, visitors do not need a reservation to visit the tiny community of Polebridge, which is adjacent to the park’s boundary.

Entering its second year, the summertime requirement for vehicle reservations is designed to manage high traffic volumes within the park and avoid gridlock. Glacier National Park is consistently the tenth-most visited national park in the country and officials credit the 2021 reservation system with helping reduce congestion during peak hours while circumventing the need to close vehicle access on the Sun Road an estimated 35 times.

“This was achieved despite 2021 visitation numbers currently indicating the second-highest visitation on record for the park,” according to a press release issued Feb. 4. “Avoiding gridlock also ensured emergency vehicle access and prevented severe vehicle back-ups at the West Entrance.”

The addition of the North Fork to the list of park entrances requiring a reservation is due to last summer’s record-setting visitation to the area, which was once characterized by its primitive charm.

That’s no longer the case.

By August 2021, visitation to the North Fork was 20% higher than in 2019. In contrast to the Sun Road corridor, a paved alpine thoroughfare that is designed to accommodate higher volumes of visitation, the North Fork is managed as a “wilderness threshold zone” with an emphasis on solitude, a sense of history, its difficulty of access, and limited support facilities.

For example, visitors must travel nearly 40 miles along an unpaved road to reach the entrance station at Polebridge; upon arrival, a dearth of services means visitors should be equipped to hike or backpack into the remote wilderness sanctuary.

“In order to maintain these values, the park will manage North Fork visitation levels to eliminate the need to temporarily restrict access, improve visitor safety, protect sensitive resources, and provide quality visitor experiences,” the press release states.  

The Going-to-the-Sun Road and North Fork vehicle reservations will function as two separate reservation systems. Beginning March 2, vehicle reservations for both areas will be available 120 days in advance on a rolling window. Starting May 26, additional vehicle reservations will also be made available the day before the effective date, allowing local visitors the opportunity to book last-minute reservations to their backyard destination. 

The reservation system will require visitors to set up an account on Recreation.gov and obtain a vehicle reservation ($2 nonrefundable fee). While Recreation.gov remains a close partner to the National Park Service, the website is not operated by Glacier National Park.   

Visitors may also make a reservation through the Recreation.gov call center. Contacting the call center does not provide an advantage towards securing a reservation but provides an alternative for those who don’t have access to the internet or are not as familiar with technology.

In addition to the vehicle reservation, each vehicle entering the park is required to have a park pass for any entry point into the park. These passes could include any one of the following: a $35 Glacier National Park pass purchased at the gate or online (valid for seven days); a Glacier National Park Annual Pass; or an America the Beautiful Interagency Pass, including the annual, senior, military, access, volunteer, or 4th grade passes.  

Landowners inside the park (and their guests and employees) and tribal members are not required to have a vehicle or service reservation to access the Sun Road. 

For more information, visit the Glacier National Park website