Park Status Updates

Conservation & Advocacy
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Current Park Status Updates

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This wiki serves as a collaborative resource to track the real-world impacts of recent staff reductions and other threats on our national parks and forests. Sharing information quickly is crucial for planning trips, advocating for change, and understanding the evolving situation.

Please contribute! If you have information about changes in park operations, please edit this wiki and add your updates. Follow the format below for consistency.

Important Guidelines for Contributing:

  • First-Hand Information Preferred: Share information you’ve personally gathered from official park sources (websites, rangers, official notices) or direct observation during a recent visit.
  • Cite Sources When Possible: If you’re sharing information from a news report, social media post, or other secondary source, provide a link to the original source. If you received information via email or personal communication, state that clearly (e.g., “Received email from park,” “Spoke with ranger on duty”).
  • Unconfirmed Reports: If you’re sharing information that you cannot directly verify (e.g., a report from another visitor, a cancellation email without official website confirmation), clearly label it as “Unconfirmed” and provide as much detail as possible about the source (e.g., “Reported by another visitor,” “Received cancellation email for [Tour Name]”).
  • Be Specific: Include details like dates, specific locations (e.g., “East Visitor Center”), and the nature of the change (e.g., “reduced hours,” “trail closure,” “program cancellation”).
  • Be Factual and Objective: Avoid speculation or rumors. Stick to verifiable facts or clearly identify unconfirmed reports.
  • Date Your Updates: Include the date you added or last verified the information.
  • Focus on Impacts: Prioritize information that directly affects visitors and photographers (access, services, conditions).
  • Avoid Editorializing: Present the information neutrally. Let the facts speak for themselves.
  • If information is outdated, move it to an “Archived Information” section at the bottom, rather than deleting it entirely. This helps track changes over time.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park

  • Updated: February 22, 2025
  • All tours have been canceled indefinitely. Guided tours are expected to be reduced starting March 23, 2025. Reportedly, the park lost half its staff due to recent terminations and is unable to hire replacements.
  • Source: Reddit user who received an email from the park. Link

Saguaro National Park

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument

Grand Canyon National Park

Yosemite National Park

  • Delaying the sale of camping nights for five campgrounds (Upper Pines, Lower Pines, North Pines, Wawona, and Hodgdon Meadow). This delay affects reservations from June 15 - July 14.
  • Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/DGEXs9GObCW/

Joshua Tree National Park

Archived Information (Outdated Updates):

  • [None yet - move outdated updates here]
1 Like
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David, as a weekly visitor to JTNP for many years now I’ve seen the increasing strain on the park overall. Including day use areas that were left heaping in strewn trash with a dumpster within yards of the debris. The increase in tagging and graffiti overall has added to the impact. I know I’d reported at least two locations a bit off the grid in the last 4 years alone. My brother and I carry a trash bag and pick up litter on our outings. Thankfully most of it looks to be airborne items and not intentionally dropped.
In the end just the natural deterioration and or global warming is doing enough damage without human destruction too.
For the last several years the most popular northwest entrance has had a big issue with traffic backing up a good distance on a narrow single lane road. Our Friday visit saw where it looked as though they had finally began to actually break ground on relocating that entrance station a good 1/4 mile deeper into the park. As we’re always in and out at daybreak it was never any issue for us, but we could see it getting build up upon our exists.
I can’t imagine the fate of the park with less support and wondering where all this will end. Once the deep damage is done it cannot be restored. All of this after President Biden just introduced the adjacent area Chuckwalla National Monument into protective status. One has to really wonder about the support it will receive if at all from the feds now.

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Florissant Fossil Beds IS confirmed, via their official Facebook page announcement. The closure also applies to the main entrance (gated and locked), main parking lot and bathroom facilities. The Hornbeck Homestead (an official Dark Sky location) is presumably open. It’s not clear if the Barksdale picnic area and trailhead is open or closed on Mondays and Tuesdays (it has a gate, but is typically open 24/7).

1 Like