National Parks closed - so what happens now?
 

During this period of time that the parks are closed, what happens to the people that have/had reservations and are staying in the hotels IN the park? Are they kicked out? What do they do for food and service - can't leave the park because they couldn't get back in, right? What about the back-country campers/hikers - do they round them up and send them out of the park. What actually happens when the government shuts down the parks?

Ideally, they would all go home and file recall petitions against the idiotic congressmen who made this happen. but that isn't likely to happen.

Your mileage may vary.

The latest word from Xanterra who runs most of the lodging:
http://www.xanterra.com/news/potenti...ment-shutdown/
Some of the National Parks have state highways through them that can't be closed.

thanks for the Xanterra info. Boy, I'd be pissed if I had to get out in 48 hours and then they reopened a couple of days later. UGH!

"Ideally, they would all go home and file recall petitions against the idiotic congressmen who made this happen."

I would think level-headed people would be asking why they even need to be closed. Park Police are law enforcement and public safety positions, so they should still be there. Other than that, are there any other federal government employees who are absolutely necessary to be there for people to go on a hike. No, there aren't. The food and lodging are operated by outside businesses, so there's no real reason why they would need to close.

How about the Lincoln Memorial? It's essentially some steps leading to a statue. In normal times, nobody is there, other than maybe Park Police in the general vicinity. So why would there be a need to take the extra effort to wall it off? Is there spending that occurs on a day to day basis that is necessary to allow people to walk up the steps and look at the statue?

The answer to all of this is no and none. It is being done not by necessity, but out of spite, as a punishment. Ideally, people would start to question that.

We were kicked out of Yosemite when the parks closed down under Clinton. That's because we were camping. Those staying at the Ahwanee (sp?) could stay, but no one was allowed in the park who was not already there.

They were closed down under Gingrich.

Call Rep Bachmann from Minnesota and ask her to come and remove any barricades to camping grounds, monuments, the Liberty Bell, etc.

You need to dress like a veteran, preferably without arms and legs in a wheelchair so the photo op will make sense to her.

Today I'm not a proud American...just an embarrassed one.

My apologies to all the visitors from around the world who came to visit our amazing parks.

I'd hoped we were better than this. Shame on kongress.

I agree weimarer. The closure of Rocky Mtn National Park has resulted in the closure of Trail Ridge Road which leaves only one road open into flood ravaged Estes Park.

"Park Police are law enforcement and public safety positions, so they should still be there. Other than that, are there any other federal government employees who are absolutely necessary to be there for people to go on a hike. No, there aren't."

It's not as simple as that.

First, I don't believe that all park rangers are law enforcement/public safety officers as well. There are a lot of rangers that work the entrance booths and visitor centers. With no visitors, those positions all stay home. Even some of the rangers that would normally be out patrolling can stay home as well, since it's much easier to patrol a park with no humans in it.

So, if the parks simply stayed open but closed the visitor centers and let everyone in free, they would need to staff the law enforcement and public safety positions at the normal levels. And that would violate the whole 'non-essential' part of the shutdown, because the government doesn't view hiking as an essential activity.

As for the backcountry campers, I would assume that parks were warning them of the possibility of a government shutdown and telling them they might need to vacate if it did happen. I would guess there were rangers assigned to locate all the permit holders today and inform them of the shutdown and give them til nightfall to exit the park.

Campers have 48 hours to get out - Federal Parks are closed - Statue of Liberty for example - CLOSED. We will be in NYC in mid Oct and have already bought tickets to the ferry to SOL - hoping all is ironed out and " again - bring on elections!!

I just wish I had just started on a Week long backpack trip through one on Sunday. Probably really quiet and peaceful for a few lucky folks(if they are lucky enough not to run into a Ranger).

How nice that the tea party members who caused this shutdown are still getting pay checks and have good, gov't funded health care! Can you say irony?

By all means don't place the blame on any lawmakers in this, especially the ones you keep delusionaly thinking are standing up to Big Government...yeah, the one that has a whole bunch of parks you want to go into.

Who are you talking to Dukey1? I don't see anyone saying a word about lawmakers standing up to Big Government. Are you seeing things?

STOP FUSSING!

I was just asking what happens to the people that were already at the parks when they closed.

they cant get out till somebody comes and unlocks the park.

Just an observation but I was at Yellowstone in August and a lot of the workers were from out of the country. They all wore labels saying where they were from. I wonder what happens to them. They must be on some sort of foreign exchange program. Nice lodges and restaurants. Hope they gave away all the food to the workers.

A friend of ours, his sister and daughter have been training for months for the Grand Canyon hike which they planned to go on in October. It's cancelled. I wonder how many people on the hike supported the tea party?