Glacier National Park is 91,014 visitors short of setting a new annual attendance record, but still on pace to break it by year’s end, according to preliminary visitation data released Tuesday by the National Park Service.

Compared with last September, Glacier National Park had a dip in visitation, but year-to-date attendance, estimated at 2,247,514 visitors by the end of September, was 1 percent higher than the same time last year.

For all of 2014, Glacier recorded 2.3 million visitors — the busiest year in the park’s history.

The park service estimates visitation by multiplying the number of vehicles entering the park by the average number of occupants per vehicle.

September 2015 had 4.7 percent fewer visitors enter the park than September 2014, and only the Polebridge entrance posted a significant increase from the year before — up 31.7 percent. St. Mary and Many Glacier were the only other two entrances with increases over September 2014, at 7.7 and 3.4 percent, respectively.

Visitation via the West Glacier entrance dipped 1.3 percent from last September, Two Medicine was down 8.6 percent and Goat Lick’s popularity plummeted 74.5 percent.

Total overnight stays last month were down 31.9 percent from 2014, most notably in concession lodging, which dropped 87 percent. Group camping also decreased considerably: 410 stays in September 2014 compared to 48 last month.

Despite a strong start to the season, with the second-highest May attendance and a record-shattering June, wildfires and smoky conditions in July and August dramatically impacted east-side entrances to the park and eroded the 25-percent increase in visitation — compared with 2014 — the park experienced during the first six months of the year.

Yellowstone National Park has set a record this year with more than 3.8 million visits through the end of September and is on track to top 4 million visits by year’s end.

The number of recreational visits to Yellowstone this year has surpassed a 2010 record of more than 3.6 million by nearly 5 percent, according to The Associated Press.

Visitation has been following an upward trend all year as each month topped its 2014 total. This year’s numbers have already outpaced 2014’s end-of-year visitation count by 300,000.

Yellowstone spokeswoman Amy Bartlett says the increase in visitors can be attributed to the “Find Your Park” campaign, lower gas prices and next year’s National Park Service centennial.

Reporter Samuel Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.