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Nearly 3 million people visited Glacier National Park in 2022

Glacier National Park remains among top 10 most visited national parks
Glacier National Park
Posted at 4:14 PM, Mar 14, 2023
and last updated 2023-03-15 10:50:42-04

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.