Rocky Mountain National Park in northern Colorado remains open during the federal government shutdown, which started Wednesday, though visitor services are limited.

With prime leaf-peeping season in full swing, the national park’s popular Glacier Gorge Trailhead crawled with visitors on Oct. 1.

A lone park ranger answered visitor questions at the trailhead, many of which were about the government shutdown, and many of which even park rangers weren’t sure how to answer.

Whether the park would remain open through the duration of the shutdown and what visitor services might stay open are not immediately clear.

Officials in Colorado offered to “partner” with the federal government to keep Rocky Mountain National Park, a key driver of tourism in the state, open in case of a shutdown, noting the park is in the middle of the popular leaf-viewing season. 

On Wednesday, Rocky Mountain was working on “skeleton staff,” according to a park ranger conversation overheard Wednesday by The Denver Gazette. A Rocky Mountain National Park spokesperson did not respond to the Denver Gazette’s request for further information about staffing numbers.

Estes Park Mayor Gary Hall also did not know what staff numbers in the park looked like Wednesday, he said, noting that information about park operations was “slow to come by.”

Congress is required to pass a series of 12 appropriations bills every year by Oct. 1 to fund the next fiscal year. The legislative body, however, has not passed any of the 12 bills ahead of that deadline.

On Wednesday, a park ranger told The Denver Gazette the Fall River Visitor Center on US-34 in Estes Park is open, but all other visitor centers are closed.

All park entrances are open, the park ranger said.

Outside of the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center, which sits at the entrance to the park coming in from Estes Park, dozens of people tugged at the locked doors before realizing the information center and gift shop were closed.

Glenn Cincala and Nancy Mckenna, who came from the Denver area, said they hadn’t considered that the visitor centers would be closed due to the shutdown. They figured it out when they tugged at the door handles and found them locked.

Mckenna is frustrated at the government shut down, adding that she doesn’t want the park to close, but that it might be for the best to keep visitors from doing things they shouldn’t do while the park isn’t fully-staffed. The parks belong to the public, she said, and having limited services for visitors at the parks due to the shut down is “upsetting,” she said.

“These are our national parks, they belong to us,” Mckenna said. “It’s really important for people to be able to get out in nature and heal ourselves. I’m just very upset.”

If the park has to close, Cincala wouldn’t blame the park service, he said. Last time the government shut down, the park stayed open and there was “a lot of vandalism and trash, restrooms didn’t get cleaned,” he said.

“If they do shut the whole thing down, I’m happy,” he said.

While fee stations are staffed, fees are not being collected, since the National Park Service is not allowed to collect fees during a government shutdown. A fee collection ranger waved cars through Wednesday, stopping each briefly to tell visitors to have a good visit.

Meanwhile, up the Dream and Emerald Lake Trail, visitors blew past a trail closure sign and took photos from a closed restoration area.

In tandem but unrelated to the government shutdown, Dream Lake and Emerald Lake trails are closed through Thursday for a bridge replacement project, according to the park website and signage at the trailhead.

At the trail split where the closure starts, a ranger radioed to fellow staff that “tons of people” were ignoring the closure sign. Other visitors took photos from an area clearly marked with a “stay off, restoration area” sign.

All other trails in the Bear Lake area will remain open, the park website said.

More information about Rocky Mountain National Park, including alerts on trail and park closures, can be found on the National Park Service website.