Though Glacier National Park visitation was up about 17% over last year in July, Superintendent David Roemer said the park’s new system for parking and shuttling people to Logan Pass is working well.

This season the park did away with a timed entry system; while that has resulted in long lines outside the park on Highway 2, once inside the park, Roemer said, he’s been able to drive the road at 40 mph to Avalanche and then about 20 to 25 mph beyond that.

In other words, the drive goes smoothly. Once at Logan Pass visitors have a three-hour parking limit and have to get a permit at the visitor center.

Roemer said he can watch that use in real time from his office in park headquarters and the system seems to be working as best as it can. The park is seeing about 1,300 cars a day at Logan Pass for just 235 parking spaces.

“They’re turning over several times a day,” he noted, with about 100 people per hour being able to find a place to park at the pass, something that was unheard of in the old system, as the pass filled up in the early morning hours and parking spots were few and far between until much later in the day.

The Park Service’s morning express shuttle to Logan Pass also is working as intended, especially since it incorporates a “standby” line.

The reservations for the shuttle can be tough to get online, but the park also has a standby line, where people without a ticket can get a shuttle ride if they don’t have a reservation. The shuttles, as a result, typically have few open seats.

Roemer said the shuttle and parking restrictions have allowed the park to manage crowds on the popular Highline Trail to thresholds set in the 2019 Sun Road corridor management plan. That plan  looked to have about 1,100 people a day hike the trail from the pass to the Loop.

Roemer noted that data for July 16, for example, showed about 1,200 people hiked the trail. By contrast in 2025, more than 2,000 hiked the Highline on the same day.

Roemer shared the data and his perspective on how the summer went during a Glacier Conversations question-and-answer Zoom discussion hosted by the Glacier National Park Conservancy.

The park is expected to formalize its transportation plan by summer 2027.