While a federal judge has ruled that the 1,000 NPS probationary workers fired on Feb. 14 must be given back their jobs, the Trump administration’s actions affecting government agencies have already seeped into operations at national parks.
These national park campgrounds are currently closed
Great Smoky Mountains, which straddles the border of Tennessee and South Carolina and is among the country’s most-visited due to its breadth of wildlife such as black bear and white-tailed deer, has been among those shuttering all types of services due to lack of staff.
As first reported by National Parks Traveler, six of the parks’ 10 campgrounds remain closed even as the busy summer season approaches.
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“The park’s largest campgrounds are currently open: Cades Cove, Elkmont, and Smokemont,” the NPS confirmed to the outlet in an email. “Deep Creek will open as planned on April 18. Abrams Creek, Balsam Mountain, Big Creek, Cataloochee, Cosby, and Look Rock campgrounds are closed.”
Some of the closed campgrounds or roads have not been reopened after suffering damage from Hurricane Helene while others are being kept closed for the season due to the dearth of staff.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is home to over 1,900 black bears.
‘Visitors who booked campsites have received refunds’
“We regret any inconvenience,” the NPS said further. “Visitors who booked campsites in those campgrounds have received refunds.”
Visitors to Great Smoky Mountains have also reported that popular picnic areas such as Big Creek, Cosby and Heintooga remain closed even as the weather warms while the start of car-free days in Cade Cove has been postponed to June.
Great Smoky Mountains is also far from the only park to see closures and other disruption. In southeastern Arizona, Saguaro National Park recently announced that its visitors center “will be closed on Mondays until further notice” while visitors to the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Zion in Utah and Yosemite in California have all reported seeing bottlenecks and winding lines of cars at entrances to drive in.
The latter national park has also faced significant disruption to its entry reservations for the busy summer season; while the booking system was supposed to reopen in February, the online portal remained inactive and only became available on March 24 as park authorities waited for guidance from the government on what it should do and whether it will have funds for operations.
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West Coast parks such as Cascades, Mount Rainier and Olympic have also all reported losing six employees each. Many of the workers were abruptly pulled away from the process of preparing trails and grounds for the peak park visitor season.
“Without seasonal staff during this peak season, visitor centers may close, bathrooms will be filthy, campgrounds may close, guided tours will be cut back or altogether canceled, emergency response times will drop, and visitor services like safety advice, trail recommendations, and interpretation will be unavailable,” a letter that 17 Democratic and Independent lawmakers sent to recently confirmed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum at the end of January reads.
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