They don’t want to bother hauling their trash out because it is messy and ‘just food waste.’ Except when everyone does it it becomes a dump, smells, attracts flies and bears.
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Not hauling out trash is one thing, but literally destroying the natural habitat is beyond me.
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Our National Park trip is continuing as planned. The main difference yesterday (at Rocky Mountain NP) was that no one is checking for timed entry permits, the gates are just open. Interestingly, the free shuttle buses on Bear Lake Road are still running.
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Muir Woods is closed.
Edit: I’m only now realizing that a bunch of beach parking lots around the Bay Area depend on federal funding. Not beach weather today at least..
https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/federal-shutdown-hits-popular-bay-area-parks-whats-closed/
We’ll probably be at RMNP next week. S23 goes often, so it will be interesting to see what he notices.
Cabrillo National Monument is closed and today’s paper says there’s a monument ranger in his vehicle near the entrance turning people away. I went there Tuesday (it’s close by) for a last visit for a while and encountered a few sad volunteers. Also chatted with a couple of senior women who had no idea a government shutdown was imminent 
.
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This site is tracking the status of national parks: https://www.thetravel.com/live-updates-us-national-park-closures-government-shutdown/
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Today at RMNP the entrance stations are staffed and passes are being checked.
Friends report all is normal at Zion too (operating with state funding).
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Rain is the best beach weather!
(^^^ grew up in Oregon 
)
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Buried in the NPS contingency plan is this:
Parks with accessible areas that collect fees under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (FLREA) will utilize available retained recreation fees balances to provide basic visitor services in a manner that maintains restrooms and sanitation, trash collection, road maintenance, campground operations, law enforcement and emergency operations, and staffing entrance gates as necessary to provide critical safety information. • Parks must develop daily cost estimates for all employees and services to be supported by recreation fees for review and approval by the Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks. This may include costs that parks planned to fund out of appropriations that have lapsed. Where excepted activities as described above are appropriate under FLREA at these parks, they may also be proposed for FLREA funding. • Parks with accessible areas that do not collect recreation fees or have insufficient balances must develop daily cost estimates for all employees and services to be supported by regional or national recreation fees for review and approval by the Director.
This seems to suggest that parks might be allowed to start charging the public a fee to cover costs, or increase fees.
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Sleeping Bear Dunes is reporting that the visitor center is closed.
The scenic drive and dune climb are open but the booths aren’t manned
The campground is open and is funded by camping fees
No report on the bathrooms in the park, we were there 2 weeks ago and although they were being cleaned, the pit toilets needed pumped badly.
Very interesting that the reporting of NPS is basically open, not collecting fees and opening what they can without funding. Seems different than the last time there was a government shutdown.
Joshua Tree is open. They are manning the entrance booths. Pit toilets are open with copious amounts of tp. Saw many rangers around - in parking lots or driving.
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Thank you! My husband has been planning a visit. Hope the visitors will not trash the park like the last time. 
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I’m so glad to hear this after what happened last time. I would not be surprised if the rangers are doing this unpaid for love of the park.
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I’m so happy they are manning the entrance booths at Joshua Tree. It was awful what happened during that shutdown!
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But I’m not sure that staffing the entrance booths matters that much. They aren’t collecting entry fees, or adhering to reservation limits for admission. Visitor centers are also closed. We haven’t seen any rangers on the trails here in RMNP. We’ll see what it’s like at the parks we visit next (Great Sand Dunes, Arches and Canyonlands).
I think that if people are going to vandalize national parks then the chances of them being caught in the act by a ranger are quite small regardless of the shutdown. The main discipline is usually just the presence of other people.
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I can’t verify if they are collecting visitor fees, but we had to show our national park pass at the entrance booth, so I assume they weren’t just waving people in.
Joshua Tree received damage last shut down, so seeing rangers patrolling parking lots and driving around is good. Again, I wasn’t camping, so I can’t verify they are patrolling camping areas, but given their presence around, I would be surprised if they weren’t.
didn’t stop at the visitors center, but there were cars in the parking lot, so they might be open. It sounds like each park is treated differently, but I wanted to share my recent experience.
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I’m at Joshua Tree now.
The gates are manned but they are not taking the entrance fee. We have seen park rangers and park police driving around the park, and even saw one car being pulled over 
. There are people here but not especially crowded.
The bathrooms and parking areas have all been spotless, but of course it’s only day 2 of the shutdown.
We took all of our trash out of the park with us and hope that others do the same so that trash receptacles don’t overflow again.
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Great Sand Dunes today was very popular. No one staffing the gates and the visitor center was closed. Campground was open.
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