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May visitors surge in Glacier Park

Sam Wilson | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 8 years, 11 months AGO
by Sam Wilson
| June 7, 2016 2:20 PM

Lending credence to predictions that crowds will reach an all-time high this summer, Glacier National Park set a new May visitation record alongside a new rainfall record last month.

The park’s latest visitation report estimates 178,218 visitors streamed through the park’s entrances during month, a jump of over 32 percent from last year, which was previously the busiest May.

The latest measure of Glacier’s popularity comes in spite of 6.4 inches of rain falling in West Glacier, setting the precipitation record for the month since the National Weather Service began keeping track in 1948. The average May rainfall in West Glacier is 2.64 inches.

The weather agency’s Hungry Horse Dam station also received more precipitation than any May since measuring began in 1947 — 7.73 inches versus a 2.94-inch average.

Yet the numbers indicate that park visitors were undeterred by the month’s downpours, which included in a temporary closure of Going-to-the-Sun Road after a mudslide covered a portion of the popular route.

Nearly half of May’s park-goers entered via the West Glacier entrance, where visitation increased slightly from last year for both May and year-to-date totals.

The biggest increase occurred east of the divide. Last month’s visitation to St. Mary ballooned more than seven-fold to nearly 28,000, compared with 3,412 in May 2015.

The park’s lodges reported a similar increase in occupancy last month, with 1,584 guests compared with 197 last year. The number of non-RV campground stays was up almost 25 percent.

All of the park’s other entrances that track vehicle entries posted year-to-year increases last month, except for an 8 percent drop at the Camas entrance.

The park calculates visitation by multiplying the number of cars by the average occupants per vehicle.

Like other national parks across the county, Glacier is bracing for what is expected to be a third consecutive year of record crowds during the National Park Service centennial.

More than 2.3 million people came to the park in each of 2014 and 2015, and current visitation is already 17.9 percent up from last year.

National Park Service officials expect 2016 to be another record-breaking year, a prediction that has been echoed repeatedly by Glacier Superintendent Jeff Mow.

He  has increased the seasonal workforce this year after the park was “saved by the bell” in 2015 — his reference to the wildfires and smoke that deterred many would-be visitors during the peak tourist season.

But despite the unwelcoming conditions, more people journeyed to Glacier last year than ever before.

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

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