Overview

• The Interior Department’s contingency plan leaves roads, trails and open-air memorials accessible while many visitor centers close and large numbers of employees are furloughed or working unpaid.
• Locked or secured sites are shut, closing cave systems such as Carlsbad Caverns and Mammoth Cave, gating Petrified Forest roads, and keeping buildings like the Gateway Arch and the Old Courthouse off-limits.
• Utah announced funding to run visitor centers at Zion and Bryce and to reopen Cedar Breaks, while the Zion Forever Project has been staffing visitor centers since the shutdown began.
• Park partners are paying to keep select sites open, including Friends of Vicksburg covering about $2,000 per day for Vicksburg National Military Park and Pacific Historic Parks estimating $9,000 per day to operate the S ArArizona Memorial.
• Operational gaps are evident as Yosemite waives fees with unstaffed gates, some amenities and restrooms scale back, Saguaro East posts closed gates, trip planning suffers from limited NPS communications, and advocates warn of safety and resource risks on top of earlier staff cuts.