"In the recent government shutdown, the National Parks were left open to the public while the nearly 20,000 employees and many thousands of volunteers of the National Park Service were sent home.
As a result, trash accumulated and toilets overflowed in Yosemite, roads snowed-in at Mt. Rainier, buildings were vandalized in the Great Smoky Mountains, and off-road vehicles plowed tracks across fragile desert soils in Death Valley and Joshua Tree. Elephant seals took over a parking lot at Point Reyes due to the lack of rangers. It was a mess of political making and could have been avoided."