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Recreation

Despite Visitation Dip, 2021 Crowds Converged in Near-record Droves at Montana’s State Parks

On the heels of unprecedented recreation in 2020, last year saw a 28% decrease in visitors to Northwest Montana parks, which still accounted for nearly one-quarter of statewide totals

By Tristan Scott
Wild Horse Island as seen from Big Arm State Park on Sept. 19, 2019. Hunter D’Antuono | Flathead Beacon

Montana’s state parks recorded more than 3.4 million visitors in 2021, falling 1.3% short of matching the all-time high set in 2020, when the global pandemic sparked a renewed interest in outdoor recreation and a footloose segment of the population converged on the state’s natural-resource rich amenities in record-breaking droves.

“While this represents a slight decrease below 2020’s estimates, it is a notable 27.7% increase over 2019 figures as well as past years,” according to the 2021 Montana State Parks Annual Visitation Report, which was released Feb. 11.

The sustained fever pitch of enthusiasm for outdoor recreation has prompted a sea change in land management, outdoor education and destination marketing, with agencies such as Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) retooling how it engages with visitors and nonprofit partners in order to maximize education opportunities and facilitate better stewardship of the Treasure State’s resources. (Case in point: FWP restructured its parks division to focus more attention on outdoor recreation.)

“The number of visitors coming to Montana’s state parks is a testament to their importance in the everyday lives of our communities, both for users’ health and as a critical component of our outdoor recreation economy,” FWP’s Parks and Outdoor Recreation Division Administrator Hope Stockwell said. “We continued to see first-time visitors and those who know our parks well, and we are encouraged by their efforts to recreate responsibly.”

Since 2010, overall state park visitation in Montana has grown by 71.1%, or over 1.4 million visitors. By comparison, visitation to Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park has increased by 33.5% and 40.1% during the same period of time, respectively.

Interestingly, Flathead Lake State Park’s six units, known for their pristine beauty and easy access to camping and water recreation, welcomed fewer visitors in 2021 than in 2020 and 2019; however, it still was the second most-visited state park in Montana last year. Last year, Flathead Lake State Park drew the highest visitation in the agency’s Region 1, which encompasses Northwest Montana and hosted a total of 339,631 visitors, amounting to a 28% decrease over 2020 totals and a 4.3% decrease compared to 2019.

A event at Lone Pine State Park. Beacon file photo

In several other cases across the region, state parks experienced much higher visitation than in 2019, but lower than in 2020’s record-setting year. This is true for Thompson Chain of Lakes, Lone Pine, Lake Mary Ronan, Logan, and Thompson Falls state parks.

A variety of environmental and sociopolitical factors combined to explain the fluctuations and inconsistencies in visitation data, FWP officials said, including drought conditions, wildfire smoke and campfire restrictions. Still, the trend is clear — Montana’s state parks are seeing more use than ever before.

For example, visitation in 2021 grew at a record-setting pace through July, but then slowed due to smoke and drought conditions and then colder temperatures. Even so, visitation during that period was nearly 28 percent higher than in 2019. In 2021, visitation exceeded 100,000 at 11 parks compared to eight in 2020 and seven in 2019.

Last year in Region 1, which includes Flathead Lake, Thompson Chain of Lakes, Lone Pine, Whitefish, Les Mason, Lake Mary Ronan, Logan, and Thompson Falls state parks, the state-owned-and-operated amenities served approximately 844,620 visitors. This represents an estimated 15.3% decrease compared with the year prior; however, 2020 was a year of significant growth for the region as it hosted nearly 1 million visitors for the first time.

“While the pace of growth softened in 2021, compared with 2019 the region’s visitation was still 9.7% higher,” according to the visitation report.

In comparing 2021 with the year prior, the report notes that “the declines in Regions 1 and 5 [Billings] of over 15% are rather striking. One factor could be the explosive growth that occurred between 2019 and 2020 for these regions as the public pursued camping and water-based recreation, both of which Region 1 offers at many of its parks, as does Region 5 at Cooney Reservoir. Another consideration is the impact of smoke, drought conditions, and inclement weather that limits these kinds of opportunities and the public’s propensity to be outdoors.”

Indeed, one significant driver of the decline in 2021 was lower visitation at the Wayfarer’s Unit of Flathead Lake, where Stage 1 fire restrictions took effect in mid-July, as well as periods of heavy smoke that limited outdoor recreation during August and September, including at Flathead Lake State Park’s Finley Point and Yellow Bay units, which were closed for several weeks due to the Boulder 2700 fire.

Overall, Region 1 visitation represents 24.9% of the system’s statewide total for 2021. Significantly, of the 11 parks in the state that registered visitation levels exceeding 100,000, four are in Region 1 — Flathead Lake, Thompson Chain of Lakes, Lone Pine, and Whitefish.

Visitation to Whitefish State Park surged 22.3% compared to 2020, with 105,648 total visitors last year.

“This is a first for Whitefish,” the report emphasizes, “which attracts visitors to the shores of Whitefish Lake, as does Les Mason. The important public access these parks provide is underscored by their continued visitation growth year after year, especially as the Whitefish community grows in population.”

Meanwhile, as visitation to Flathead Lake’s state-managed islands continues to increase, so do the negative consequences on wildlife habitat, including an uptick in instances involving human waste, garbage, vandalism, and unattended campfires. To that end, FWP announced last month that it is moving forward with a suite of rule changes the agency proposed last year to conserve wildlife habitat and improve the visitor experience on several of its Flathead Lake island properties.

“I would say that these visitation numbers tell a piece of the story but really they’re just the tip of the iceberg,” Dillon Tabish, education and public information officer for FWP’s Region 1. “The new challenge is sustainability in recreation, and figuring out how our Outdoor Recreation and Parks Division can best use its resources to educate people recreating in our state parks and visiting our fishing access sites in such high numbers. How do we provide the best protection of our resources while accommodating what we’ve come to accept as the new normal in outdoor recreation? I think you’ll hear us posing that question a lot.”

The top five most visited state parks in 2021 were: 

Giant Springs (Great Falls) 414,889

Flathead Lake – six units (Kalispell) 339,631

Cooney Reservoir (Roberts) 263,691

Spring Meadow Lake (Helena) 254,141

Lake Elmo (Billings) 212,916