31-Year Attendance Record Broken With Time To Spare
Thanks to the millions of visitors that visited the park this year, 2014 has just become a historical year for Glacier National Park.
The previous record for the most visitations in a single year was held in 1983 when 2,203,847 people came through the park.
This record was shattered on September 30th, when the total number of park visitors in 2014 reached close to 2,238,761 — almost 35,000 more than visited the park in 1983.
On top of that, Glacier has received close to 1000,000 more visitors in 2014 than this time last year.
Park officials hope that the by the end of December, the park could hit 2.3 million visits.
National Park Visits Up Around The Country
When Glacier National Park opened in 1911, the park welcomed a total of 4,000 visitors. The park exceeded 1 million visitors for the first time in 1969.
1983 marked the first year that park visitations exceeded two million visitors and 2014 is the third straight year that the park has exceeded the 2 million mark.
Visitation numbers are also up in other National Parks. Yellowstone National Park, for example, has seen an increase of 176,8880 visitors from last year.
Keep in mind that the government shutdown last year, which caused national parks to close for two weeks in October, likely skewed overall attendance records for all national parks.
Busy Campgrounds Mean More Funding
The significant increase in attendance at Glacier may have meant more crowded campgrounds and hiking trails but the growing popularity means more entrance fees, which means more funding going toward preserving this amazing place. We say, welcome!
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