WEST GLACIER - Nearly 3 million people paid a visit to Glacier National Park in 2022, keeping it among the top 10 most visited national parks.
Numbers released on Tuesday show a total of 2,908,458 recreation visits for the year.
Park officials note that the number of visitors dropped 5.6% from 2021, mainly due mostly to a drop in visitation in January, March, April, October, November, and December. However, monthly records were set for February and September.
Glacier National Park has consistently hosted around 3 million visitors each year for the last five years — except in 2020 due to pandemic-related closures.
The list below shows the annual trend for recreation visits over the last several years.
- 2022- 2,908,458
- 2021- 3,081,656
- 2020- 1,698,864 (Park closed March 24 to June 8, east side of the park remained closed)
- 2019- 3,049,839
- 2018- 2,965,309
- 2017- 3,305,512 (Highest on record)
While Glacier remains one of the most visited parks in the nation, park officials say in a news release "that the vehicle reservation pilot program has successfully spread visitation throughout the day during peak hours on Going-to-the-Sun Road resulting in fewer closures, better traffic management, and a more enjoyable park experience during peak season."
The table below shows recreation visitation for peak season, June through August, over the last several years.
| Location | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
| West Entrance | 821,333 | 916,493 | 876,322 | 1,011,138 | 864,798 | 983,780 |
| Saint Mary | 388,687 | 349,072 | Closed | 481,301 | 486,677 | 745,461 |
| Many Glacier | 262,471 | 261,287 | Closed | 256,192 | 267,339 | 291,191 |
| Two Medicine | 179,717 | 193,289 | Closed | 145,886 | 155,323 | 146,079 |
| Camas | 70,327 | 87,121 | 110,627 | 89,206 | 89,141 | 93,575 |
| Polebridge | 53,608 | 70,766 | 72,571 | 59,032 | 55,027 | 82,266 |
| Goat Lick/ Walton | 119,838 | 137,704 | 56,279 | 113,919 | 141,042 | 112,379 |
Additional information about park visitation, including how the above numbers were calculated can be found at https://www.nps.gov/index.htm.
