Crowded trails and parking lots, staff shortages, and natural resource damage have staff at Glacier National Park in Montana working on a long-term plan for managing visitation.

It's far from a unique set of circumstances. National Park Service staff at Rocky Mountain, Acadia, Arches, and Zion all have gone through planning to improve the visitor experience while protecting park resources under strained staff and financial challenges. While Rocky Mountain and Arches have gone to reservation systems for visiting the park, at Acadia the staff has instituted reservations for driving to the summit of Cadillac Mountain while at Zion you need to reserve a spot to hike to the top of Angels Landing.

At Glacier, the staff is sharing initial ideas for addressing traffic congestion, visitor movement challenges, transportation, and related issues that affect visitor experience and park resources. The public is invited to provide comments through January 6, 2025.

The crush of visitation is why such planning is necessary. Through the last 20 years visitation at Glacier has gone from about 1.5 million a year to around 3 million. Much of this use is concentrated along Going-to-the-Sun Road corridor and other front-country destinations during the peak season of June through August, according to park staff.

Different pilot reservation systems were implemented in summers 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, and the park will again pilot a reservation system in 2025. The pilots were initiated in summer 2021 as a response to increasing issues with traffic congestion, including backups onto US Highway 2, infrastructure capacity, and impacts to park resources from high concentrations of people in the most popular areas of the park. Prior to piloting reservation systems, the park relied on temporary and unplanned closures of parking lots, park roads, or entire valleys to mitigate vehicle congestion.

The vehicle reservation pilots have provided the park with opportunities to proactively manage vehicle congestion to improve the predictability of visitor access and reduce congestion, thereby improving visitor experiences and protecting park resources. Public feedback and monitoring data were used to inform the initial ideas being presented for feedback.

“It is our collective priority to provide a park experience at Glacier that is enjoyable and safe,” said Glacier Superintendent Dave Roemer. “We have learned a lot by piloting solutions, listening to feedback, and adapting on an annual basis. Now, we want to start the conversation of what a long-term plan looks like at the park. Everywhere I go, I hear so much passion and pride in Glacier. I hope that everyone will take this opportunity to share their input.”

The public can visit the project website to submit input. This site also provides a summary of key issues, project goals, the history of visitation, transportation and vehicle reservations in the park, and the initial ideas for the park’s long-term plan.

There are several upcoming opportunities to learn more about the planning process and ask park staff questions. Scheduled opportunities include:

Virtual Public Meetings

Join the park planning team for a virtual presentation of the plan with a moderated question and answer time. Both virtual meetings will present the same information.

* November 21: Virtual meeting from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Join by following the link at: https://parkplanning.nps.gov/MeetingNotices.cfm?projectID=118357.

* December 16: Virtual meeting from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Join by following the link at: https://parkplanning.nps.gov/MeetingNotices.cfm?projectID=118357.

In-Person Public Gatherings

Join the park planning team for a drop-in style opportunity to speak with park staff about issues related to the plan. Please note, there will be no formal presentation or recorded public comment opportunities at these events.

* December 2, 2024-Open house from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Residence Inn Downtown in Missoula.

* December 3, 2024-Open house from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the KwaTaqNuk Resort & Casino in Polson.

* December 4, 2024-Open house from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Cedar Creek Lodge in Columbia Falls.

* December 5, 2024-Open house from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Blackfeet Community College in Browning.