Glacier backcountry reservations going to a lottery system

COLUMBIA FALLS, Mont. – Glacier National Park is changing how it administers backcountry camping reservations this year.

The park says it will use a “modified lottery system” that will process requests on opening day in a randomly sequenced order. After that, reservations will be taken in the order they’re received.

The Hungry Horse News reports that the reservation system for opening day had been on a first-come, first-served basis.

Opening day for reservations is Friday.

The changes come after a rush of reservation requests last year overloaded the system and it crashed. Last year 1,500 campers made an attempt to get a reservation in the first hour. The previous year, 1,600 people applied for permits on the first day.

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Information from: Hungry Horse News, http://www.hungryhorsenews.com