2024 Ticketed Entry

[zozeppelin]

Updates for next year: Flathead Beacon

Heading in the right direction by dropping the east entrance and Two Medicine. Also by pushing the entry point up GttSR, people can enter Apgar and catch shuttles - this is a breakthrough improvement.

Not blocking the east entrance seems to admit the issue isn’t the traffic, it’s the bottleneck at the entrance or that people are too lazy to drive around?

Some interesting stats as well on utilization of the 3 day pass.

[paul]

Yes, that's much better. I always thought the Two Medicine pass was completely unnecessary. Still they are leaving the North Fork access unchanged. I guess I can deal with that.

[Ear Mountain]

I've never had much luck getting an entry pass. Will the change to a one day pass make it easier to get an entry ticket?

[orin]

NPS claims that the change from 3 day pass validity to 1 day will let them issue more passes. Whether that will make a noticeable difference is hard to say but if demand continues to vastly exceed supply probably not much. East side access should be easier though unless overcrowding forces a lot of temporary closures.

[zozeppelin]

Also I see the 'day prior' pass time has changed from the morning to the evening, which is also good as those wanting passes likely are heading into the park early the day of (prior) to gain access without a ticket and won't have cell access.

[mattB]

I understand that they're still kind of experimenting and testing and trying to figure out what works best, but I can't see any of these changes helping much.
Having 3 different reservations for different areas of the park, and going from a 3 day pass to a 1 day pass, won't change things much, and will make it more complicated to plan a multi-day visit, but it will give a lot more "service fees" to rec dot gov...

Eliminating the reservation requirement for the GTTSR on the east side will make the parking situation at Logan Pass even worse than last year.

Moving the toll booth for the GTTSR on the west side from the West Glacier entrance to a spot just east of the Apgar Transit Center is a good idea, and will allow people who are willing to ride the shuttles to get into the park without a road reservation, BUT its probably going to make parking at Apgar terrible.

I know something has to be done, and I understand its a complicated problem, but I'm not sure they're going in a good direction.

I would like to see fewer cars and more shuttles.

[davidwayne]

I was fortunate that my 3 visits to GNP were all before 2014, before the extreme crowding. I still hope to return before old age creeps in, so hopefully the system can continue to be tweaked to allow easier access, especially for those of us who know to "GO EARLY" to the trailheads, etc.