Impact of shutdown:
But bare-bones staffing makes for confusion amid shutdown
With no admission fees for a short period, Yosemite National Park is a big draw for bargain hunters.
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK — After losing big at the slots over the weekend, Shannon and Michael Leon opted to cut their time short at a Madera County casino.
Then their luck turned. The couple from Modesto overheard at a Denny’s that Yosemite National Park wasn’t charging entrance fees because of the government shutdown. Their road trip was back on.
The Leons were among many who rolled through the alpine gates of Yosemite admission free on Monday, finding a perk in an otherwise grim government spending showdown that forced more than a quarter of the park’s nearly 800 employees off the job for three days.
Yosemite officials were hoping to start bringing the staff back Tuesday, after Congress agreed Monday on a stopgap measure to fund the government until Feb. 8.
“We have a huge country and it takes this to make a deal on the budget?” griped Michael Leon, 25, who had pulled over at Yosemite Valley’s Swinging Bridge to take in views of snowcapped granite walls. “But hey, I got a free trip to Yosemite out of it.”
While Yosemite officials reported no major problems with the bare-bones staffing during the shutdown, some parks did.
A snowmobile ventured dangerously close to Yellowstone’s Old Faithful geyser, fortunately averting injury to the tourists and the thermal spring. At Joshua Tree, dogs were reported to be running off-leash through sensitive desert. And in the Bay Area, guests reported traffic problems when the Golden Gate National Recreation Area gated off parking lots.
At Yosemite, there were mostly inconveniences for visitors, as well as plenty of confusion.
Ina and Victor Bertran, vacationers from Spain, almost missed Yosemite altogether when they arrived at the Big Oak Flat Entrance Station and got spooked by a developing snowstorm and unstaffed ranger kiosks.
“We were thinking about turning around,” said Victor, as thick flurries rained down on the highway at an elevation of about 5,000 feet. “We don’t have any information about the weather and the roads.”
Ina added: “It doesn’t snow in Barcelona.”
Since it was the couple’s one and perhaps only opportunity to see the park, they decided to take their chances. And they ended up glad they did.
In Yosemite Valley, the lack of park employees was barely noticeable to many on Monday. The campgrounds bustled with the usual early morning smell of bacon, the privately operated tour buses ran along the Merced River and, of course, the waterfalls continued to pour dramatically into the canyon.
Jeff Wiyninger, 38, and his girlfriend, Brittany Hawkins, 31, both of San Diego, made breakfast beside a wood fire after a chilly night of camping. They said park officials had done their best to keep a nearby restroom open amid the limited staffing.
However, the drop-off in rangers didn’t entirely escape their thoughts, especially when they took a daylong hike into unpatrolled wilderness.
“It’s definitely on your mind,” Wiyninger said, noting the possibility of serious injury. “It would definitely not be good to be stuck five hours up a cold mountain.”
Theresa Pierno, the head of the National Parks Conservation Association, said the events of the weekend proved the importance of rangers.
“With almost no staff in those parks that were open, we received reports of graffiti, looting and littering,” she said. “National Park rangers and staff ensure our parks are protected and visitors have great experiences.”
She said Congress should move forward and adopt a budget that “helps parks recover from years of underfunding which has resulted in too few staff, constraints in protecting wildlife and serving visitors, and adding to the more than $11 billion maintenance backlog our parks face.”