Yosemite National Park is shut down on its own birthday. Google is featuring a special doodle for the 123rd anniversary of the park on October 1, but due to the government shutdown, the park is closed.
Hundreds of national parks, museums and zoos are closed as of Oct. 1 as the government is shut down. The shutdown comes after President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats refused to give in to House Republicans' demands to curtail the president's signature health care law. Yosemite National Park is usually open 24 hours, 365 days a year, but as of midnight Tuesday night, all 401 national parks are closed, the Huffington Post reports.
According to the New York Daily News, park police will still secure the facilities but all visitors will be turned away. The 747,00 acre-park in eastern California is known as a nature reserve with sequoia forests, waterfalls and granite cliffs, but visitors won't be able to view it. The visitor centers are closed, education programs are cancelled and campers have been escorted out.
The national parks were visited by more than 287 million people in 2012 and it is estimated that 3.5 million of those visit Yosemite each year. The park celebrates its 123rrd birthday today as it was officially established through a congressional act, spearheaded by Sierra Club founder John Muir and writer Robert Underwood Johnson, on Oct. 1, 1890.
Yosemite National Park was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1984.
Google has not commented on the timing and circumstances of the special doodle.
Other big National areas that have been closed include the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in New York, Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Alcatraz Island near San Francisco and the Washington Monument, National Zoo and the Smithsonian in D.C.
President Obama acknowledged the impact that the shutdown will have on tourism, Fox News reports. "Tourists will find every one of America's national parks and monuments, from Yosemite to the Smithsonian to the Statue of Liberty, immediately closed," he said. "And of course the communities and small business that rely on these national treasures for their livelihoods will be out of customers and out of luck."
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