If you're headed to a national park in the coming days, you'll likely find open roads and trails

and some locked doors. Visitor centers, museums, cave tours, any facility that's normally

secured after hours is closed during the shutdown. But it's not that simple, and because

official websites and park's social feeds aren't being updated. Getting good info is a scavenger hunt.

Today, we'll start with exactly how to plan a trip right now to national parks or other

federal lands, what to check, what to expect, and how to avoid getting burned. Then we'll look at

why some parks feel normal and others don't, and we'll hear from former park leaders about the

risks they're seeing and what we've learned from the last shutdown, which lasted 35 days.

I'm Jason Epperson, and this is parkography.

The U.S. Department of the Interior's shutdown guidance is simple. If it's a place that's

normally locked after hours, buildings, gated lots, caves. If it's a place that's normally locked after hours,

buildings, gated lots, caves, assume it's locked for the duration of the shutdown. But open-air

areas, roads, overlooks, trails, and memorials generally remain accessible. But unfortunately,

if you're planning on traveling to parks during the shutdown, it's not as simple as that.

Conditions can change day-to-day.

Estates, counties, tribes, and nonprofits step in or step back. Just to give you an idea of the current situation at different parks, the Grand Canyon is open and accessible with rangers at the gates taking entrance fees, but visitor centers closed. At Yellowstone, there are no

rangers taking entrance fees and visitor centers are closed, but roads and trails are open,

park-run campgrounds are closed, but concessionaire-run campgrounds are open. Petrified Forest is

entirely closed. The gate at Carlsbad Caverns is shut and locked, even though there are

places to visit above

ground in the park. At Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the park is entirely open after having

some areas like Cades Cove shut down, thanks in part to the local communities. It's really

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