Utah Reopens National Parks, Government Shutdown Be Damned
Zion National Park Zion National Park will re-open as part of the deal. Wolfgang Staudt via WIkimedia Commons The governor of Utah has announced that the state has brokered a deal with the Department of the Interior to reopen its shuttered national parks while the federal government remains on hiatus. In exchange for $166,572 per day, the National Park Service will throw open the gates to five national parks, two national monuments and the Glen Canyon National Recreation area. This arrangement assumes that the federal government can get itself together soon, because the state has only ponied up $1.67 million, which will pay for just 10 days. Utah's national parks typically bring in around $100 million during the tourist-heavy month of October, so you can kind of understand the state's consternation. The...