Empty tollbooths, ‘devastated’ visitors: shutdown throws US national parks into limbo

Visitors on the Rim Trail at Grand Canyon national park on the first day of the shutdown. The parks system has been thrust into limbo, with some sites shuttering and some operating with a skeleton staff. Photograph: Ross D Franklin/AP

Kim Nachazel had been looking forward to a road trip to Mesa Verde national park in Colorado this week. Her husband had been mesmerized by the park since he read about it in high school, and she’d planned them a full day of adventure – two tours of famous cliff dwellings, a camping spot on BLM land, and even a spot for her pup at a dog-boarding place inside the park grounds.

She knew about the government shutdown, but that didn’t deter her. “I had hope and optimism that this park wouldn’t really be affected,” she says, “and that we would have an amazing day exploring.”