GLACIER NATIONAL PARK – An early winter may have shut down a lot of fall tourism in Glacier National Park, but the latest statistics show the park will still finish just under 3 million visits for 2018.
We knew by the end of summer that the Park would fall short of setting a new visitation record this year after the stubborn Howe Ridge Fire forced the closure of the west side of the Going-to-the-Sun Road in August and September.
But then the cold weather hit early, with snow closing Logan Pass, and meaning the popular Sun Road never opened on the west side.
Still, Glacier is a draw no matter what the season, with the Park reporting 91,000 people came into the park in October, a. few thousand above last October. But overall, Glacier visits are down 10% through the end of October.
The year-to-date total at 2.9 million people. That’s still respectable when compared with trends over the past decade, but short of last year’s record 3.2 million.
Story by Dennis Bragg, MTN News
