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1h ago

NPS Keeps Most Parks Accessible During Shutdown With Skeleton Crews

The plan relies on recreation fees with outside help despite deep furloughs.

Tourist crowd around a window to view the Liberty Bell with Independence Hall in the background in Philadelphia, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Visitors are turned away from the the closed Visitors Center in Yosemite National Park in January 2018, during a previous federal shutdown. Visitors centers at major national parks are likely to be closed during this year's shutdown as well.
Bryce Canyon National Park
Yosemite Valley, El Capitan and Half Dome seen while driving into Yosemite National Park on June 19, 2025.

Overview

  • Roads, trails, and open-air memorials largely remain accessible while visitor centers and locked facilities are closed under the Interior Department’s contingency plan.
  • About 9,296 of roughly 14,500 National Park Service employees are furloughed, leaving limited emergency response, minimal maintenance, and no routine website or social media updates.
  • Parks that collect FLREA entrance fees may use those balances for basics such as restrooms, trash collection, campgrounds, and law enforcement, and NPS says states or third parties can fund operations without reimbursement.
  • States are weighing stopgap support, with Utah saying its five national parks will stay open and Arizona declining to finance Grand Canyon operations.
  • Conservation groups and more than 40 former superintendents urge closures, warning that scant staffing risks damage and visitor safety based on 2018–2019 shutdown impacts.