Overview

• Interior’s contingency plan keeps roads, trails and open-air sites accessible while many visitor centers and staffed facilities shut as NPS employees are furloughed.
• Yosemite stays open with unstaffed gates and suspended fee collection, Arches runs with minimal staff and no timed-entry controls, and the Gateway Arch’s museum and tram remain closed.
• Nonprofits and states are funding stopgaps: Friends of Vicksburg is paying $2,000 per day to reopen the battlefield, Pacific Historic Parks is covering Pearl Harbor costs, and West Virginia signed a donation agreement to reopen visitors centers.
• Gateway economies are already hit, with Yosemite tour operators reporting a wave of cancellations and the National Parks Conservation Association estimating nearly $1 million in lost park fee revenue per day.
• Advocates warn limited staffing heightens safety and resource risks given past shutdown damage, even as concessionaires like Yosemite Hospitality, Xanterra and Aramark keep lodging and dining operating at marquee parks.