Greetings, Beacon Nation! I trust that you all stayed hydrated during the penultimate weekend of August, which delivered hot temperatures across the Flathead Valley. I base that trust on the fact that, despite a northwest Montana summer that has been cooler and wetter than normal, visitors to Glacier National Park’s Logan Pass have been consuming water in record numbers, straining a water distribution system that is nearly 60 years old.

Prior to the dedication of Logan Pass Visitor Center on Aug. 28, 1966, motorists traversing Glacier National Park’s famed mountain highway over the Continental Divide didn’t have today’s visitor amenities like water fountains, although they could pull off for a rest at a stone-masonry comfort station built in the 1930s. Nowadays, they play cutthroat games of parking lot roulette with the 236 spaces at Logan Pass, as well as, apparently, high stakes games of chicken with the resident wildlife.

That’s probably not what Kalispell engineer and “Parkitecht” Burt L. Gewalt imagined when he was assigned the Logan Pass Visitor Center project, as well as those at St. Mary and Lake McDonald. The projects were part of the National Park Service’s “Mission 66” program, a major effort funded by Congress and supported by President Eisenhower to help the NPS meet the demand for expanded visitor services following World War II. The needs of park visitors in their automobiles significantly increased as gasoline rationing was lifted and more Americans with more leisure time sought outdoor recreational experiences.

At the time, the concept of a “visitor center” was brand new. The term was coined by the Mission 66 planners, according to author Sarah Allaback, whose book, “Mission 66 Visitor Centers: The History of a Building Type,” described visitor centers as “the centerpiece of a new era in planning for visitor services in American national parks.”

They might also have ushered in a new era of entitlement, as park officials on Friday warned of a water shortage at Logan Pass, where visitors are consuming up to 60% more water on a daily basis.

I’m Tristan Scott, and I’ll be your guide as we learn about the latest challenges at Glacier’s most popular visitor venue.

Designed “to provide visitor orientation to the high country of the park,” the concept of the Logan Pass Visitor Center is timeless. Unfortunately, its potable water distribution system is not.

When it comes to flushing toilets and filling visitors’ Stanley Cup tumblers, the park still depends on its original water system installed during the Mission 66 era, which involves drawing many thousands of gallons of water each day out of Logan Creek. But lately, it can’t keep up with visitor demand.

According to park officials, increasing visitation at Logan Pass (pictured above in 1940) and heavy demand for water has led to a water shortage at the visitor center.

“Logan Pass is currently experiencing low water levels. The water supply is insufficient to support the number of visitors the area receives daily,” according to park officials. “Due to the shortage, visitors may expect to see changes to the times plumbed toilets will be available.”

The water for Logan Pass area, which includes the plumbed bathrooms and the water filling station, all come from the Logan Creek Basin, which is fed by a melting ice field. Rain helps to refill the basin during the summer, but the park is observing that the water is being used faster than it is replaced. Logan Pass normally uses 5,000 to 6,000 gallons of water a day. This summer, however, the park has seen that Logan Pass uses an average of 8,000 gallons a day.

To conserve the water, visitors may expect to see intermittent periods when plumbed bathrooms will be closed. If the closure occurs, the initial bathroom closure will be from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 a.m. The closure throughout the night is to refill the water tank, park officials said. The vault toilet building and multiple portable toilets will be open for visitor use. The water filling station will remain open for now.

The water at Logan Pass has historically turned off in early- or mid-September in preparation for winter conditions. This year, water at Logan Pass will be turned off for the season on Sept. 7.

“Visitors should be prepared and bring their own potable water, as bottled water is not available to purchase at the Logan Pass Visitor Center,” park officials warned.

Glacier National Park is in the process of replacing outmoded water and wastewater systems at seven sites across the park, including at the Logan Pass Visitor Center. The three-phase project is already underway in the St. Mary and Two Medicine areas, with improvements at Many Glacier and Lake McDonald slated to begin in fall of 2026, and Logan Pass and Granite Park improvements tentatively planned to begin in fall of 2027.

The Logan Pass portion of the project is in the very early stages of design, according to officials.

“The park would take measures to avoid impacts to sensitive vegetation and a federally listed (threatened) species of stonefly that inhabits the area,” according to officials, referring to the meltwater lednian stonefly, or Lednia tumana, which lives exclusively in cold-water streams fed by Glacier Park’s melting namesake, and the western glacier stonefly, or Zapada glacier, which occupies similar habitat.

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