Panorama along the Going-to-the-Sun Road At Logan Pass in Glacier National Park/NPS, Jacob W. Frank

Efforts to constrain traffic on the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park in northern Montana this year succeeded, with a 12 percent decline in traffic compared to 2019, according to park staff.

That said, the park still recorded 2,354,475 visitors through August. That was the lowest tally since 2016, when the count was 2,344,592 through that month.

The ticketed entry system was implemented on Sun Road for the 2021 season to help manage high traffic volumes during a predicted high visitor season; avoid traffic back-ups onto US Highway 2 during construction; and as the park operated with reduced staff and services due to COVID-19 mitigations. The goals of ticketed entry included shaving off the high peaks in traffic to reduce congestion on the Going-to-the-Sun Road and avoiding gridlock that could block emergency traffic.

On opening day for Going-to-the-Sun Road, there was a 10 percent increase in vehicles over 2019. In a July press release, the park incorrectly reported a 41 percent increase of Going-to-the-Sun Road traffic over 2019 on opening day. This inaccuracy occurred because of a data error that has been corrected.

“In our attempt to use real-time data to monitor the traffic on Going-to-the-Sun Road, we discovered a data error that made it appear as though we had a larger increase in traffic over 2019,” acting Superintendent Pete Webster said Thursday. “Although the reported increase in July was not accurate, overall ticketed entry has met the goals we set out to achieve.”

Between Memorial Day weekend through the end of August, there was a 12 percent decrease in vehicles on Going-to-the-Sun Road from 2019, reflecting the park’s goal to shave off spikes in traffic volume.

Visitation parkwide year-to-date through August was 3.8 percent lower than 2019. While Going-to-the-Sun Road vehicle entry decreased this year, alternate entrances to the park saw increased visitation, resulting in frequent closures. Vehicle entry during June through August at Two Medicine was up almost 33 percent, the highest on record, and the North Fork almost 20 percent over 2019 numbers.

Construction on Many Glacier Road throughout the season caused the traffic counter to malfunction in June and July, a situation that has been remedied for the remaining season. Alternative calculations based on current and previous year trail counts and visitation needed to be developed to estimate the traffic counts, which delayed the park’s reporting on visitation statistics for June and July.