Each fall, Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado typically fills with visitors eager to see the aspens turn gold, hear elk bugle through the valleys, and catch those last clear days before snow settles on the peaks.
But this year, when news of the government shutdown broke, some of that excitement turned to confusion. At hotels and lodges in gateway towns such as Estes Park and Grand Lake, Colorado, the phones began ringing nonstop with travelers asking the same question: Can we still come? Many were unsure whether their long-planned autumn getaway was still possible.
“We told them the park was open on a limited basis, and most people still came out,” says Pat Murphy, owner of Murphy’s Resort and Murphy’s River Lodge in Estes Park. He added, “We really didn’t lose very many reservations.”
Reed Woodford, co-owner of KMAC Guides, a climbing company, echoed that sentiment. When we called him, he happened to be journaling at the edge of the meadow inside the park, where he described the scene as “normal for this time of year.” He added that his business hadn’t seen many cancellations, though he primarily operates on mountains outside the park.
Even with far fewer rangers and limited services, leaf peepers and wildlife watchers continue to drive Trail Ridge Road and hike the park’s trails. While gateway communities may not yet be feeling the effects of the government shutdown—now stretching into its fourth week—the parks themselves are.
Normally, autumn is an idyllic time for visiting Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park, but the government shutdown has parkgoers questioning whether they should still go.
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Are U.S. national parks open during the government shutdown?
“More than 350 of our national park units are open in some capacity,” a National Park Service spokesperson said in a statement emailed to Afar. “That includes many of the most visited sites across the country. Each park’s status is determined by its contingency plan and local conditions, but we’re doing everything possible to keep America’s parks accessible and safe for visitors.”
In the lead-up to and in the immediate aftermath of the start of the government shutdown on October 1, organizations like the National Parks Conservation Association and more than 40 retired national park superintendents urged the federal government to close the protected lands to all visitation during the shutdown.
“National parks don’t run themselves. It is hardworking National Park Service employees that keep them safe, clean, and accessible,” the former superintendents said in a letter issued to Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, in the week leading up to the shutdown. Without adequate staffing and oversight, they argued, visitor safety is jeopardized, and natural and cultural resources and park infrastructure are at risk of damage and degradation.
However, the Department of the Interior ordered that the NPS keep roads, trails, and landscapes open to the public, even while visitor centers, interpretive programs, and many services have been shuttered.
What national park services are and aren’t available during the shutdown?
During a shutdown, the NPS is required by law to furlough all “nonessential” employees. That means select rangers, visitor center staff, maintenance crews, and other park workers—more than 9,000 in total—are off the job. Only a small number of personnel (those needed for health, safety, and protection of property) remain on duty, often working long shifts without pay. The result is no visitor education, no trail maintenance, no scientific monitoring, and little to no law enforcement. Park websites and social media accounts also go dark, fire management plans are paused, and wildlife tracking halts midseason. Ongoing projects, including trail repairs and archaeological surveys, sit in limbo.
Utah is using state funds to help keep its Mighty Five national parks, including Canyonlands, open.
Photo by Dann Petty/Unsplash
Some parks have been able to keep more services going, either through the local, state, or Tribal governments providing funding from their coffers or through nonprofits and businesses donating money. One example is Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which is receiving additional funds from local and state governments in Tennessee and North Carolina, along with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the nonprofit Friends of the Smokies. The nation’s most-visited protected land, the park straddles two states and sprawls more than 800 square miles. The cost to keep everything open (including campgrounds, bathrooms, visitor centers, and more) is estimated to be roughly $85,000 a day.
Similarly, Utah is currently keeping its five national parks (Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, and Zion) fully open by using state funds to cover the estimated $8,000 a day to operate the visitor centers in the parks. Other buildings within Utah’s parks, however, remain closed, and only a skeleton crew of guest-facing rangers have been kept on to answer questions and provide backcountry permits. The funds they’ve raised also don’t pay for natural resource protection or research.
How to visit the national parks responsibly during the shutdown
For travelers who still plan to visit national parks during the shutdown, the most important thing is to tread lightly, says Gerry James, the deputy director of the Sierra Club’s Outdoors for All campaign, which promotes the importance of universal access to nature and the great outdoors. With rangers furloughed and services reduced, every visitor’s actions have an outsized impact.
Visitors can help by following the “leave no trace” principles to the letter: Pack out every piece of trash (including food scraps), stick to established trails to prevent erosion, and avoid camping or starting campfires in undesignated areas.
National park advocacy groups encourage travelers to keep their distance from wildlife such as the bison of Yellowstone National Park.
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Respecting wildlife is especially critical right now, since there are fewer staff to enforce maintaining safe distances or to respond to emergencies. Fall is mating season for elk in places like Rocky Mountain National Park and Yellowstone, and approaching too closely can put both humans and animals at risk. Likewise, drivers should slow down and stay alert for animals crossing roads that might not be regularly patrolled.
If you notice trail damage or unsafe conditions, report them to a local visitor center or “friends of the park” group. Many of these nonprofit partners—such as the Rocky Mountain Conservancy, Friends of Joshua Tree, and Glacier National Park Conservancy—play a vital role during shutdowns, stepping in to fund restrooms, plow roads, and support volunteer cleanup crews. Donating to these organizations or joining one of their trail stewardship days can make a tangible difference.
Potential lasting impact on America’s parks
According to the National Parks Conservation Association, every day this shutdown continues, the national parks lose up to $1 million, because visitors can enter without paying right now. That’s money that would normally fund maintenance, staffing, and resource protection.
Additionally, at some parks, overflowing trash cans and littering have been reported. In Joshua Tree, a fire broke out near a campground, prompting evacuations and trail closures. Although firefighting crews are still active, the staffing limitations delayed communication, which was flagged as a contributing factor in the blaze, as there were fewer rangers around to enforce fire restrictions. In other places, parkgoers flout standard rules, from deviating from designated hiking trails to BASE jumping at Yosemite—an activity that’s illegal in all parks due to the significant safety risks to participants and potentially to first responders if something goes wrong.
“This shutdown is making an already bad situation at national parks and public lands far worse. And the longer this goes, the worse it is going to get,” Emily Thompson, executive director of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, said in a statement issued following the reports of visitors’ behavior in Yosemite. “The situation is dangerous and reckless for our parks, public lands, and the visitors who love them.”
Luckily, James says, we’ve not reached 2018 levels of destruction and disruption in the parks, referring to the 35-day shutdown in 2018–2019 that saw vandalized petroglyphs at Big Bend National Park, off-roading through the fragile landscapes of Death Valley National Park, and chopped-down centuries-old Joshua trees at Joshua Tree National Park, among other damaging events.
“Still, as someone who has helped with cleanups and trail maintenance in the past, I think it’s going to take weeks to recover from this unstaffed period,” James says. He adds that park rangers already had a lot on their plates, following the 25 percent cut in staffing earlier this year because of Department of Government Efficiency firings and an estimated $23 billion maintenance backlog of aging roads, deteriorating trails, crumbling visitor centers, and outdated sewage systems. That backlog only grows as work is delayed. “If the shutdown goes on further, it’s going to take months or years for the parks to recover.”
