Colorado’s most-visited national park remains open despite the federal government shutdown, but details about how the shutdown will impact services and operations remain unclear.
The gates to Rocky Mountain National Park’s east side — at Beaver Meadows and Fall River — are open and visitors are traveling into the park, Estes Park Mayor Gary Hall said. “That’s a good thing — how long that’s sustainable, that remains to be seen.”
Park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson referred questions from The Denver Post to National Park Service headquarters in Washington.
A memo from the Department of the Interior — which oversees the Park Service — about nationwide operations during the shutdown said park roads, trails and open-air memorials will generally remain accessible to visitors. However, park facilities or areas that are generally locked during non-business hours should be locked and inaccessible. That includes buildings, the majority of the visitor centers and gated parking lots. Road and trail conditions won’t be updated, and websites won’t be maintained.
Much of the park service’s staff will be furloughed, except those deemed necessary for law enforcement and emergency response.
Estee Rivera Murdock, executive director of the nonprofit Rocky Mountain Conservancy, said the Fall River Visitor Center near the entrance to the park on U.S. 34, will remain open, however, since it is operated by the conservancy, not park staff, and is located outside of the park boundary. “We’ve done that in all previous shutdowns, also,” Murdock said.
The shutdown comes at the worst possible time because this is a peak season when the park attracts hordes of visitors to see fall colors and rutting elk, she added.
“We need peak staffing this time of the year,” Murdock said. “We’re absolutely concerned about not having full staffing in the park. We want visitors to have a wonderful experience, and we want to make sure the resources are appropriately protected.”
The conservancy is urging visitors to use caution, warning that there could be delays in emergency response, including search-and-rescue and law enforcement.
“Those are positions that are not furloughed,” Murdock said, “but there are always delays when you’re missing the vast majority of the staff throughout the park who have been furloughed.”
Rocky Mountain National Park’s mountainous Trail Ridge Road, which climbs over the Continental Divide and reaches 12,183 feet, typically closes in the fall when snow begins to fall.
In August, Gov. Jared Polis told The Denver Post that the state stood ready with a plan to keep Rocky Mountain National Park open in the event of a shutdown.
“We will keep our national parks open,” Polis said then. “That requires cooperation with the federal government. Both Biden and Trump, when they were facing shutdowns, were fine with that. It’s a matter of us figuring out how to pay for it and do it. We haven’t had to do it, but we came very close a couple times.”
Questions emailed to the governor’s press office regarding the state’s plan have not been answered.
“Remember, what you see on the front end — at the visitor center — is not what it takes to run Rocky Mountain National Park,” Murdock said of possible state involvement. “There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes folks. It’s not just about serving front-end visitors, and it’s not just about Rocky Mountain National Park. We’ve got Florissant Fossil Beds, (National Monument), Great Sand Dunes (National Park). All of these places are huge economic drivers and critical treasures throughout the state.”
(This is a developing story that will be updated.)