MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Almost two weeks into the government shutdown, national parks are starting to close. The public had been getting into the parks for free because employees weren't there to collect entrance fees. That also means they weren't there to collect the trash or clean the bathrooms. On the nation's first national park, Yellowstone, local businesses are pitching in to pay park staff to keep it open or at least parts of it. Montana Public Radio's Eric Whitney reports.
ERIC WHITNEY, BYLINE: Despite temperatures that regularly dropped below zero and the park being covered in snow, people still come to Yellowstone in winter time, between 20,000 and 30,000 a month.
(SOUNDBITE OF SNOWMOBILE)
WHITNEY: The snow is actually a big attraction. Snowmobiles like these are as common as cars on the frozen streets of the park gateway town of West Yellowstone, Mont. Dan Gibbons from nearby Bozeman had family in from out of town for the holidays and booked a snowmobile tour from here to Old Faithful geyser.
What do you think was the best part?
DAN GIBBONS: Seeing the kids' reaction. The trees next to the geysers are covered in ice crystals. So I could show you some pictures. It's brilliant.
(LAUGHTER)
WHITNEY: Jerry Johnson owns a business that rents snowmobiles and sends seven guided tours a day into Yellowstone in the winter.
JERRY JOHNSON: It's the trip of a lifetime.
WHITNEY: Johnson got a big spike in calls when news of the shutdown hit, and he really didn't want to tell people that their Yellowstone adventure was canceled because of D.C. politics.
JOHNSON: I mean, it's not cheap. So it's, you know, they had to plan and budget for this. And all of a sudden to get the carpet ripped out from underneath them, I think, is not fair.
WHITNEY: The park is almost entirely closed to cars starting in November, so the only way to get to Old Faithful and most other park attractions is via snowmobile or in big vans with cartoonishly huge balloon tires called snow coaches. They require roads that are groomed daily by the park's fleet of half a dozen big tractors. They're kind of like Zambonis that smooth out ice-skating rinks but a lot bigger.
JOHNSON: If you don't groom them, the trails will get very rough. And you'll get bumps, moguls in them. And it'll be just - it's miserable.
WHITNEY: So, during the shutdown, private businesses that operate inside the park are picking up the tab - about $7,500 hundred dollars a day to groom Yellowstone's 300-plus miles of snow-covered roads and to keep one paved road open to cars. Xanterra Parks & Resorts, which runs the only hotels operating inside the park in winter, is paying most of that. Mike Keller is Xanterra's general manager in Yellowstone.
MIKE KELLER: That is correct. We're funding the National Park Service to perform the grooming duties.
WHITNEY: Xanterra asked guide services that operate in the park to chip in to help pay park employees during the shutdown, and all of them did. It adds up to about 300 bucks a day for each of the guide services. And the Park Service is totally going to reimburse them for paying park employees during the shutdown, right?
KELLER: There is no reimbursement from the government after the shutdown ends. The funds that we've - that we pay operate for those days. We won't be reimbursed the dollars that we've committed for the previous 14 days.
WHITNEY: Nor is Xanterra getting reimbursed for the half-dozen of its employees who are cleaning park bathrooms during the shutdown. And snowmobile guide services like Jerry Johnson's are packing in their own toilet paper and packing out all their trash. He says they're happy to keep the park open and nice because...
KELLER: It should be open, and services should be there because it is the people's park.
WHITNEY: Xanterra resort says they're willing to keep paying park employees to maintain winter access to Yellowstone into February, at which point they'll re-evaluate the funding arrangement with their fellow concessionaires. For NPR News, I'm Eric Whitney in West Yellowstone, Mont.