The U.S. Capitol looms in the background of a sign on the National Mall reminding visitors of the closures to all national parks due to the federal government shutdown in Washington.
A police officer passes in front of the Washington Monument and World War II memorial.
Law Enforcement Ranger Jeffrey Gardner tells motorists about the closure at Yosemite National Park due to the government shutdown in Yosemite, California.
Holly Jean Holst, park ranger at Independence National Historical Park, places a sign on the door of the Liberty Bell pavilion informing visitors that the historic site is closed due to the government shutdown on October 2, 2013, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
A group of Nampa High students check their luggage and prepare for a trip to Washington, D.C. before dawn Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2013 at the Boise Airport in Idaho. The students belong to a travel club and have been planning the trip for over a year, but the recent government shutdown has caused many of the sites they are planning to see to not be open.
A runner climbs over a road gate leading to Fort Point National Historic Site, which has been closed due to the federal government shutdown, in San Francisco.
A tourist reads the closing notice in front of the Air & Space Museum due to the federal government shutdown.
A sign on Rt. 41 in Oakhurst, Calif., notifies travelers that Yosemite Park.
Stephen Kostelec, from El Cajon, California, sketches on the deserted Yosemite Valley floor amid the government shutdown in Yosemite National Park.
A pedestrian walks past the locked doors at the National Park Service Alaska Regional Office in Anchorage during the federal government shutdown.
A sign announces the closure of the Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.
Glen Canyon NRA: Closed Due to Government Shutdown
Mount Rainier National Park: Closed Due to Government Shutdown
Fort Caroline National Memorial: Closed Due to Government Shutdown
Olympic National Park: Closed Due to Government Shutdown
National Parks Law Enforcement Ranger Mirta Maltes ties up a sign on one of the temporary gates used during hurricanes that explains the federal government’s shutdown of the Everglades National Park, located on the southern tip of Florida.
Because of the government shutdown, Eduardo Echeverria, a federal law enforcement ranger at Everglades National Park, closes the main gate at 6 p.m.
The George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Dallas, Texas, was closed.
The Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge was closed due to the federal government shutdown.
David Emerson of Centipede Tours gestures towards the bell above Independence Hall during a morning tour in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Independence National Historical Park is closed during the federal government shutdown.
Parks, including North Holiday Park, at Lake Benbrook are being closed as part of the federal government shutdown in Benbrook, Texas.
Bastian Ziegler, from Stuttgart, Germany, packs up and leaves the Wawona Hotel in Yosemite National Park amid the government shutdown in Yosemite, California.
As the U.S. government shutdown heads into a second week today, America’s “best idea” is closed to tourists. To be more precise, America’s national parks are a lousy idea for visitors right now.
As Ken Burn’s landmark 2009 TV documentary The National Parks: America’s Best Idea outlines, the national parks are “an idea as uniquely American as the Declaration of Independence and just as radical: that the most special places in the nation should be preserved, not for royalty or the rich, but for everyone.”
For now, that everyone is shut out of the 401 national park units across the country because they have no government funding for the employees who run them and keep them open. With it, America has become the laughing stock of the world, with immediate harm to the travel and tourism industry, and the local, national, and international tourists unable to visit these parks and national monuments.
We’ve collected a gallery of photos of the shutdown, above.
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Photo Credit: The U.S. Capitol looms in the background of a sign on the National Mall reminding visitors of the closures to all national parks due to the federal government shutdown in Washington. Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
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