Page 36 - Flathead Beacon // 7.27.16

BUSINESS MONTHLY
Glacier Park Infrastructure Stretched Thin Among Record Crowds Superintendent Je Mow says visitors should expect heavy park tra c, wait times
BY MOLLY PRIDDY OF THE BEACON
It’s another booming year for visita- tion in Glacier National Park, with sum- mer crowds pushing the park’s infra- structure and transportation systems to the limit with no slowdown expected in the near future.
Roughly 2.36 million visitors made their way into Glacier Park in 2015, set- ting a new all-time record that surpassed the previous record set only a year earlier in 2014, when 2.32 million people visited.
And 2016 looks as though it will con- tinue this trend, with overall visitation through June up 8.7 percent compared to the same time in 2015.
While park administration is excit- ed to see more people visiting Glacier, the in ux is stressing the existing infra- structure system.
“We anticipated that we would see things that we had never seen before in this park with that visitation,” Glacier Park Superintendent Je Mow said in an interview last week. “In preparation for that, we looked at what can we do to build some depth into our organization.”
But even those preparations weren’t enough, Mow said. The best illustration of the park’s conundrum is the free shuttle bus system that drives people up Going- to-the-Sun Road with stops along the way.
The shuttle system was created as a way to reduce tra c on the already busy Sun Road. Mow said that, as of last week, all the buses were in good repair and out on the roads, without any left in reserve.
“We’re really being stretched to the limits,” he said. “Everything’s work- ing, everything’s maxed out, but right now nothing is broken. We’re not being thrown for any major loops.”
Mow said the park experienced some of the hiring woes occurring elsewhere in the Flathead Valley when it came to
Glacier National Park. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON nding enough bus drivers, adding an-
other challenge.
But at this point, the biggest issue is
the sheer volume of people on the park’s roads. Mow said the demand for access to popular areas of the park, such as the Ava- lanche Lake trailhead and campground, has caused new behaviors in visitors.
While visitors have historical- ly tended to park down Going-to-the- Sun Road when the Avalanche parking lots are full, Mow said the precariously parked cars – which look like they’ll tip over given the grade of the ditch next to the road – are stretching longer down the road than ever before.
“The landscape design sta who worked so hard on the rehabilitation of
Going-to-the-Sun come back here shak- ing theirs heads, saying, ‘We would have never thought people would have parked there,’” Mow said.
Margie Steigerwald, spokesperson for Glacier Park, said visitors who can’t nd parking on Logan Pass are now driving down the Sun Road, parking wherever they can nd a spot, and walking up the narrow alpine road, sometimes in large groups, presenting a major safety problem.
“We’re seeing things on the ground that demonstrate that we are well be- yond the design of the Going-to-the-Sun Road in terms of its facilities, in terms of where people can park, using the re- strooms, the lines for the shuttle buses,” Mow said.
Apgar Village parking, along with the visitors’ center, is typically full, she said, and some people have reported wait times of up to two hours for the free shuttles.
At this point, Mow said, the conver- sation must turn to managing visitors’ expectations when it comes to Glacier Park. People will board a plane on the promise of driving up to Logan Pass, he said, but they should also learn to expect large crowds and long waits in an other- wise wild place.
“As we move forward, how do we help people with those expectations?” Mow said. “If people know they’re going to be sharing this with a lot of people, that’s OK if they expect it.”
mpriddy@ atheadbeacon.com
36
JULY 27, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM