The Story Board: May 2021

Tickets for Glacier National Park

Demand to get outdoors this summer, whether on federal, state, or private lands, is greater than ever. One example of this is Glacier National Park, which has seen a surge in the number of visitors over the last few years with this summer predicted to be one of the busiest on record for the park. In response to this increased demand and the substantial influx of additional visitors, Glacier is relying on two tickets to help manage the flow and impact of visitors at the park.

Entry Tickets are required for the 50-mile long Going-to-the-Sun Road between 6am and 5pm from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day Weekend. Entry tickets have been available through Recreation.gov since April 29, 2021. Tickets can be purchased at 8am MDT each morning for reservations 60 days prior to arrival. Additional tickets for each day are also released into the system 2 days prior to arrival. Entry tickets are valid for 7 days.

Visitors to the park via the Going-to-the-Sun Road will need BOTH an entry ticket and a pass, including passes from the America the Beautiful series or a site pass for Glacier National Park. To address a common visitor question, entry tickets are not required to visit the park. They are only necessary for visitors entering the Going-to-the-Sun Road at West Glacier, St. Mary, or via the Camas Road. Visitors can also access the Going-to-the-Sun Road without an entry ticket before 6am or after 5pm; a park pass is still required though.

*Reservation Tip: Login to your Recreation.gov account, or create an account if you don’t have one, at least 10 minutes before tickets go on sale and make a plan to book online to avoid delays. Our Contact Center does not have any additional or set-aside tickets for sale.*

Shuttle Tickets will be available to visitors again this year after not operating in 2020 due to COVID-19. Shuttles will run from July 1 through Labor Day Weekend with limited capacity and stops. In order to comply with health guidelines related to COVID-19, a “ticket-to-ride” will be required to board the shuttle. Occupancy on the shuttles will be greatly reduced to ensure effective social distancing, and all visitors are required to wear a face mask that covers the nose and mouth while riding in shuttles.

Shuttle tickets (75% for the entire shuttle season) can be purchased through Recreation.gov beginning on June 1, 2021 at 8am MDT. The remaining tickets will be released for 48 hours advance purchase on a rolling window. The number of tickets available for purchase is based on the available number of seats each hour. Tickets can be reserved in 1-hour increments between 7am and 2pm, and cost $1.00 (non-refundable). Visitors planning to ride the shuttle should consider where they will enter the park before purchasing a ticket. If planning to enter from the east side of the park, visitors should reserve their ticket for the St. Mary Visitor Center. If entering from the west side, they should reserve their ticket for the Apgar Visitor Center. The shuttle ticket also serves as a Going-to-the-Sun Road entry ticket for the day of reservation.

If you have a trip planned to Glacier National Park this summer, make sure you’re prepared and #PlanAhead by learning more about site passes, entry tickets, and shuttle tickets to visit the park.

These are just a few of the comments we see across the internet after a major release for a high demand location through Recreation.gov, like campsites at Yosemite National Park on the 15th of every month.

Some people are convinced that only a few users employing specialized bots are reserving all the campsites, and that it isn’t possible there is this much demand to visit our public lands and waters. However, demand to visit popular national parks, national forests, and other federal recreation sites is greater than ever. This surge in visitors means that the most popular and recognizable names in outdoor recreation (be it federal, state, or local lands) are booking up faster than before. These locations are often fully reserved only minutes after they’ve been released. For example, a popular campground with 57 campsites can see close to 19,000 people all trying to reserve the same campsites for the same dates immediately after they’re released for reservation. This leads to sites booking up in seconds to minutes as the demand greatly exceeded the number of available campsites.

When it comes to bots though, our team has safeguards in place to protect Recreation.gov from spam and users attempting to abuse the integrity of the reservation system with malicious software. These protective processes and systems prevent bots from seeking out and quickly capturing availability on our site. Additionally, we have a team of dedicated experts monitoring traffic and trends during every major release to interrupt suspicious activity. All of these steps are taken to help you reserve with confidence. Please know that if you are unable to find availability, it is likely not due to a bot scooping up multiple sites but because thousands of other visitors are all trying to reserve the same campsites and tours.

Your best bet for reservations is to make them through the Recreation.gov website and to #PlanAhead (we’ve outlined some tips in the Help Center article below) for high-demand releases to help improve your chances of securing a popular tour or campsite. You’ll also find recommendations for other locations near popular sites or can try our Trip Builder to help map out a trip.