Page 10 - Flathead Beacon // 10.19.16

NEWS
A visitor snaps pictures of fall colors in Glacier National Park. BEACON FILE PHOTO
Glacier Park Breaks Annual Record After September Upper alpine stretch of Sun Road closed; 2.72 million people visited Glacier Park through September
BY BEACON STAFF
With the recent arrival of winter
weather, the upper alpine section of Going-to-the-Sun Road is closed for the season after the busiest stretch in Glacier National Park history.
After only nine months, Glacier Park already set a new annual attendance record with more than 2.72 million visi- tors in 2016. According to gures released by the National Park Service, last month was the busiest September in park his- tory with more than 468,000 visitors, a
33.4 percent increase over last year.
The year-to-date total is a 20.4 percent spikeoverthesameperiodin2015.This year’s nine-month total surpasses last year’s all-time mark for the full year — 2.36 million — and marks the third consecutive
year of record visitation in Glacier.
Last week the NPS announced the sea- sonal closure of most of the Sun Road. The road remains open for 15.5 miles on the west side to Avalanche Creek and to the foot of St. Mary Lake on the east side. Each of the last ve months — May through September — set monthly
attendance records in the park, bene t- ing from the NPS centennial celebration andamild reseasonintheregionaswell as reports of strong domestic travel across the U.S.
Visitation through the West Entrance spiked 25 percent in September com- pared to 2015 with more than 200,000 people. For the year, the West Entrance is up 9.5 percent with more than 1.17 mil- lion visitors.
At St. Mary, visitation jumped from more than 80,000 in September 2015 to more than 106,000 this September, a 32.6
percent increase.
Visitation at the Izaak Walton/Goat
Lickareawentfromroughly2,800inSep- tember 2015 to nearly 25,000 last month. Year-to-data visitation is up 65 percent.
The total number of overnight stays is up nearly 14 percent this year with more than 398,000. RV overnight stays are up 28 percent with more than 124,000 and tent overnight stays are up 21 percent with over 134,000. Backcountry over- night stays jumped 18 percent with more than 38,000.
news@ atheadbeacon.com
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OCTOBER 19, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM