Travelers were turned away at the entrance to Mesa Verde National Park on Wednesday morning as the federal government shutdown forced the closure of all but the park’s main road.
Vans, RVs and cars lined up at the park gate as travelers waited to hear from the attendant about the closure and what access remained. Some visitors said they were caught off-guard.
“We were surprised to find out that everything was closed at the top,” said David Hurley, a out-of-state visitor who was camping at the park with his wife. “Of course, we were bummed but nothing you can do about that.”
The partial closure and shutdown came after Congress hit a standstill on the federal budget.
Loop roads, the Mesa Verde Museum and Visitor and Research Center and the popular Spruce Tree House have closed, a park attendant told The Journal. The attendant, who requested anonymity, said he remained on duty as an essential worker, while others have been furloughed.
The Journal reached out to park ranger and information officer Dalton Dorrell for comment but was unable to reach him.
Attendants were notifying travelers of the closure at the gate. A park attendant will continue staffing the entrance, though hours may vary depending on personnel availability.
Tours have been canceled. Hiking trails have closed, and the status of campgrounds remains uncertain. The main road, which runs about 20 miles through the park, remains open free of charge, the attendant said.
The National Park Service released a contingency plan ahead of the shutdown Tuesday evening. That plan stated that the agency would furlough about two-thirds of its employees and keep parks largely open.
The plan says that “parks may close grounds/areas with sensitive natural, cultural, historic, or archaeological resources vulnerable to destruction, looting, or other damage that cannot be adequately protected by the excepted or exempted law enforcement staff that remain on duty.”
The Bureau of Land Management Tres Rios Field Office is awaiting instructions on how the government shutdown will impact them.
“We're still working through our orderly shutdown,” said Derek Padilla, field manager of the office. “We're uncertain exactly what that is going look like.”
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument is temporarily halting “all volunteer activities, events, and programs” at the museum, according to an email from Jennifer Humphreys, visitor center manager.
“Federal employees who manage this program are in a non-duty, non-pay status and cannot provide services, including responding to emails or phone calls,” the email read.
In New Mexico, A Tri-City Record reporter confirmed that Chaco Culture National Historical Park, Aztec Ruins National Monument and Salmon Ruins were shutting down.
Visiting from Seattle, David Hurley and his wife, Annie, who stayed overnight at Morefield Campground, said they had planned to take two guided tours Wednesday, only to discover the park had closed.
Hurley added that the shutdown carried more weight for them because of their age. “It is a big deal, because we’ll never get back to experience this,” he said. “But we have been here once before.”
The couple, on a three-week tour of the region, said they decided to rearrange their schedule, shifting tomorrow’s plans a day forward and seeking new places to camp.
Another couple, David and Nancy Nidermier, retirees from Ohio on a cross-country trip, said they learned at the Canyons of the Ancients Visitor Center that Mesa Verde would close. When they drove to the park entrance, they found the attendant was waving visitors away.
They said the closure hasn’t disrupted them yet – they toured Mesa Verde last week – but they are concerned about their next destination in Moab, Utah, which Utah’s Mighty 5 are currently opened.
“If we get to Utah and the parks are closed, we’ll just do dispersed camping on BLM or forest land and see what happens,” David Nidermier said, pointing to the couple’s RV. “We’re pretty much self-contained.”
During the last federal shutdown, which ran for 35 days from Dec. 22, 2018, to Jan. 25, 2019, Mesa Verde National Park was initially left open but without major services. The Journal covered the confusion for visitors, early warning signs posted at the entrance gate and the economic toll to the tourism sector.
Visitors entered “at their own risk” – with no staffed restrooms, no trash pickup and no road plowing during the wintertime. On the opening day of the shutdown, NPS signs told visitors to use “extreme caution,” according to previous Journal reporting. After a snowstorm hit in December 2019, the park closed altogether because there weren’t any paid plowing crews.
The Interior Department later allowed parks to use entrance fees to pay for minimal cleaning, trash hauling and patrols, but Mesa Verde stayed largely inaccessible until the shutdown ended Jan. 25, 2019. The disruption, combined with that winter’s heavy snow, helped drive an 8% drop in the park’s annual visitation.
