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NEWS
Sunset in Glacier National Park in July.
GREG LINDSTROM FLATHEAD BEACON
GLACIER PARK’S
RISING POPULARITY
A snapshot of annual estimates of attendance in the local national park
1911 1920 1934 1936 1944 1946 1952 1962 1969 1983 1994 2004 2010 2015
4,000 22,449 116,965
210,072 35,857 200,547 649,689 966,100 1,051,200 2,203,847 2,152,989 2,033,933 2,200,048
2,366,056
SOURCE: NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
Glacier Park Visitation Record Settles at 2.36 Million The 2015 annual total surpassed the previous all-time record of 2.32 million set in 2014
BY DILLON TABISH OF THE BEACON
Despite rampant wild res that ham- pered attendance in the busiest time of year, Glacier National Park set another record for visitors in 2015.
In its 105th year as a national park, the Crown Jewel of the Continent was more popular than ever, attracting an estimated 2.36 million people over the last 12 months, according to the National Park Service.
The 2015 annual total surpassed the previous all-time record of 2.32 million set in 2014. It marked an increase of 1.8 percent.
The popularity of national parks
across the U.S. is hitting an all-time high. Yellowstone National Park also set a vis- itation record of nearly 4.1 million peo- ple in 2015. The overall visitation at NPS sites is poised to hit 300 million, the most ever and seven million more than last year’s previous high.
These latest records might not last long, though. The National Park Service is celebrating its centennial in 2016, and park o cials are expecting a signi cant boost in visitors. As part of the year-long celebration, the agency is hosting festivi- ties across the U.S. and urging Americans to rediscover its scenic wonders or nd new ones to visit.
In Glacier, another record is entirely
possible on its own merit.
This latest record most likely should
have been much higher than 2014 and came in spite of several wild res that broke out in several parts of the park this summer. The Reynolds Creek Fire sparked in late July in the St. Mary area and erupted from 2 acres to 2,000 acres in a matter of hours. The blaze led to evacuations and charred one vehicle and one historic cabin, the Baring Creek Cabin. The re closed much of the area around St. Mary and portions of Going- to-the-Sun Road.
Over the next month, wild res raged in the region, including Essex, and pushed visitors out of the core area of
Glacier Park at times. Yet even then, vis- itors ocked to the beloved outdoor ref- uge in high numbers.
In 2015, the West Entrance remained the most popular gateway into the park with 1.14 million people, a 6.6 percent increase over the previous year. The res did drop visitation at St. Mary’s by 11 percent, to 429,942 people, second most among the park’s entrances.
According to the NPS visitor stats, overall camping gures were down in 2015, likely due to the wild res. There were 354,215 total overnight stays, a 2.8 percent decline.
dtabish@ atheadbeacon.com
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JANUARY 13, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM