The person is grateful for the knowledge and, after executing a six-point flip within the dusty parking zone exterior the Polebridge Mercantile, he is on his manner, solely to return 10 minutes later to make clear Dahlstrom’s directions.
Till just lately, the doorway station at Polebridge persistently ranked among the many least-visited areas, requiring a level of resolve to entry that not all park guests possess.
In 2010, about 25,000 guests entered Glacier by Polebridge, the place a small however rising group of year-round residents lives. Final yr, visitation quadrupled that quantity, regardless of the constraints of the pandemic, and this yr is on tempo to blow all historic information out of the water.
In 2017, the busiest yr ever recorded in Glacier Nationwide Park, and the yr that Dahlstrom began as district ranger, he counted about 7,000 automobiles getting into the park at Polebridge through the month of June. On the morning of June 30, 2021, with a full day’s crush of tourists but to be counted, he’d tallied 8,300 automobiles for the month.
“We’ve already smashed our June report. Completely smashed it,” Dahlstrom mentioned. “We surpassed our day by day report for any month six occasions already. We’re simply in survival mode.”
Though Dahlstom famous there’s been a slight downturn in visitation because the full size of the Going-to-the-Solar Highway opened on June 25, he wagered it will decide again up with a vengeance over the Fourth of July vacation weekend.
