Glacier Park On Pace for Another Record-breaking Summer

Glacier National Park officials have long considered the month of May a “shoulder season” — a weather-dependent window that opens well before the full length of the Going-to-the-Sun Road and closes just as the crush of summer traffic arrive in earnest.

In recent years, however, May has failed to deliver the same degree of respite that was once customary. This year was no different, with the strong-early season numbers indicating that annual visitation to Glacier could exceed 3.2 million for the third time in the park’s 115-year history.

Visitation to the park is already up more than 12% through May compared to last year, when the park clocked 3,211,813 visitors for a 9.4% increase over 2023 (2,936,260). An estimated 346,476 people have already ventured through Glacier’s gates during the first five months of 2025, compared to 309,062 last year, according to the latest data from the National Park Service.

This year’s data also reveals that 238,766 of those visitors came to Glacier in May, which is nearly 14% more than the 209,650 people who visited Glacier in May 2024. That’s due in part to the legions of cyclists who converge on the park’s lower-elevation corridors while road crews work to clear snow from the Going-to-the-Sun Road’s alpine stretches. This year, the scenic highway’s full length opened to motorists on June 16 before a snowstorm temporarily closed it days later.

For much of the month of May, however, motorists could drive as far as Avalanche Creek on the west side before pedaling to The Loop and beyond, depending on avalanche conditions and road closures. Visitation data shows that 126,625 people arrived in Glacier Park through its West Entrance in May, nearly 4% more than the year prior.

Trackers recorded significant visitation gains at nearly all of the park’s other entrances, too, including those that don’t afford visitors access to the Going-to-the-Sun Road. For instance, Two Medicine registered an uptick in visitation of 157.6% during the month of May, with 28,629 people visiting that area of the park compared to 11,112 during the same month last year.

The lone exception to entrances reporting monthly visitation spikes in May was Many Glacier, which reported a 27% drop in visitors compared to the year prior, with 11,578 people passing through its gates compared to 15,891 in May 2024. The drop in visitation coincides with a utilities and infrastructure project that has limited parking in the Many Glacier Valley to the hotel parking lot. The popular Many Glacier Campground also did not open this year.

In May and June, the traffic restrictions became a daily occurrence as the Many Glacier Hotel parking lot reached capacity by mid-morning, forcing park rangers to swing the gates and turn visitors away. As of July 1, those restrictions have been expanded.

There will be no general public entrance into Many Glacier between July 1 and Sept. 21 without either a day hiker shuttle ticket, a wilderness (backcountry camping) permit, a commercial service or lodging reservation (Many Glacier Hotel, Swan Mountain Outfitters, Glacier Park Boat Company). A gate will be in use at the fee booth to restrict overnight access and limit overnight parking in the valley to visitors with lodging reservations or wilderness permit holders.

For visitors’ safety, hiking and biking will also not be allowed on the Many Glacier Road between July 1 and Sept. 21.

Although Superintendent Dave Roemer acknowledged that “2025 will not be an ideal year to plan a visit to the Many Glacier Valley,” park officials stopped short of closing the area, and have taken steps to provide the public access to popular trailheads.

“We chose to keep Many Glacier open during construction, with mitigations, after taking public comment on this project in July 2023,” Roemer said in announcing the details of the shuttle system. “There was a lot of support for keeping the valley open and available for hiking, despite the limited parking capacity.”

The hiker shuttle service will be available to around 120 groups per day, limited by parking, and only available to reserve on short notice, either one week before or the night before at 7 p.m.

To use the Many Glacier Day Hiker Shuttle, day hikers will need to obtain shuttle tickets on Recreation.gov. Tickets are available seven days in advance at 8 a.m., as well as at 7 p.m. the night before entry. The only cost associated with obtaining a ticket is a $2 Recreation.gov processing fee.

Each ticket allows up to four people arriving in one vehicle to park and ride the Many Glacier Day Hiker Shuttle. If there are more than four people in a party, additional tickets can be purchased. During the checkout process in Recreation.gov, visitors should select a date and time, and indicate the number of people in your group.

Over the past two decades, annual visitation at Glacier National Park has increased from approximately 1.5 million to over 3 million visitors, most of them concentrated along the Going-to-the-Sun Road corridor and other front-country destinations during the peak season of June through September, creating severe congestion at the park’s most popular entrances.

Swiftcurrent Motor Inn, Many Glacier Campground, and all trailhead parking in the Swiftcurrent area will be closed through mid-May 2026. All waters in Many Glacier Valley will be closed to private personal watercraft the entire 2025 season. Many Glacier Ranger Station is closed for the 2025 season. The nearest wilderness permit office is at St. Mary Visitor Center. National Park Service information and trail updates will be available at Many Glacier Hotel.

To manage that congestion, Glacier is in the fifth consecutive year of requiring a vehicle reservation for park visits. The most prominent changes to this year’s vehicle-reservation system revolve around a timed-entry vehicle reservation system.

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