Glacier Park eyes ticket system to ease traffic

Glacier National Park officials will host four virtual meetings this week to gather input from area businesses to discuss a temporary ticketed entry system the park is considering starting yet this month due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ticket system would require reservations for entry to the Going-to-the-Sun Road corridor as soon as late July, according to a press release distributed to local Chambers of Commerce and other stakeholders by Teagan Tomlin, executive assistant to Glacier Park Superintendent Jeff Mow.

“This would help reduce congestion and parking problems and provide greater certainty for visitors,” Tomlin said. “This will be similar to the system Yosemite National Park implemented earlier this season. We anticipate that we will face increased difficulty with managing congestion on the Going-to-the-Sun Road, especially since visitors will need to enter and exit the Going-to-the-Sun Road via the west entrance.”

Because of the closure in place, traffic entering through the west entrance is only allowed as far as Rising Sun on the east side. The Sun Road opened Monday to Rising Sun.

The east entrance at St. Mary is closed due to the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council’s resolution restricting non-essential travel on the reservation due to COVID-19.

Tickets would be required for entry to the park at West Glacier and will be available through recreation.gov, with half being available up to 30 days in advance and the remaining tickets being released two days in advance. Tickets will allow for seven days of park entry, just as the current system. Ticketed entry will not be required for visitors traveling to the North Fork area of the park, tribal members, visitors with camping or lodging reservations, landowners and their guests, business owners, groups holding valid Commercial Use Authorizations and those participating in park partner activities.

A private vehicle day-use entry reservation would be $35, and a motorcycle $30, which includes a nonrefundable $2 reservation fee. If a visitor holds a valid Interagency Annual Pass, Glacier National Park Annual Pass or Senior Pass, they will just have to pay the $2 nonrefundable reservation fee.

“We acknowledge it will be challenging instituting a ticketed entry system this summer,” Tomlin said in the advisory. “If we implement ticketed entry as soon as the end of July, the turnaround from planning to implementation will happen over a few weeks.

“We also acknowledge that a ticketed entry system will not be favored by all visitors,” Tomlin continued. “Since we reopened the park on June 8, visitors have expressed mixed emotions on their access to the park. Some have been pleased that any part of the park is open. Others have been more frustrated with temporary closures put in place due to congestion.”

Park officials are looking for feedback from local businesses on the pros and cons of ticketed entry, along with observations about the summer season. If you have questions or comments you would like to submit for the meeting, email Teagan_Tomlin@nps.gov.

Meetings will be held Tuesday, July 14 at 1 p.m.; Wednesday, July 15 at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. and Thursday, July 16 at 1 p.m.

To join the virtual meetings, contact Tomlin at Teagan_Tomlin@nps.gov with the date and time for the meeting you would like to join. Tomlin will send participatns the meeting link to join the meeting.