Gates will be locked and thousands of employees will be furloughed from national park sites if Congress doesn’t reach a budget agreement this week. However, Arizona and Utah officials say they’ll make sure visitors can still enjoy the Grand Canyon and Zion Valley if a cutoff comes Sunday.
The parks’ economic impact is so huge that Arizona’s Democratic governor and Utah’s Republican governor will invest to keep Grand Canyon, Zion, Arches, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef and Canyonlands national parks open.
Colorado officials are thinking about keeping Rocky Mountain and other parks open.
National parks collectively could lose nearly 1 million visitors daily during a shutdown, and gateway communities could lose as much as $70 million. That’s according to the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association.