OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — Visitors and employees of the million-acre Olympic National Park grappled Tuesday with its closure after the partial federal government shutdown began just hours earlier Monday night.
Shutdown victims also included more than 200 children from Roosevelt and Jefferson elementary schools in Port Angeles and the Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences who had planned trips to the park this week.
All park campers and overnight guests at park lodges must leave the park by 6 p.m. Thursday, said park spokeswoman Barb Maynes on Tuesday.
She and 30 other park employees will remain on duty as part of a skeleton crew at park headquarters in Port Angeles, she said.
The park’s other 103 employees have been furloughed without pay.
Maynes is among critical-role employees, such as those working maintenance and security, who will stay on duty through the shutdown, including Park Superintendent Sarah Creachbaum, Maynes said.
“Right now, there is no funding to pay us,” she added.
“We’ll know what that means in terms of compensation at a later time.”
A Lake Crescent Lodge supervisor who was not authorized to speak for the lodge said Tuesday morning that no one was leaving yet because of the shutdown.
Still, a sign on the door warned that “all overnight guests must vacate the premises and leave the park within 48 hours,” the 6 p.m. Thursday deadline.
Henry and Grace Liu of Bellevue were among the lodge’s guests.
They set out from the lakeside facility Tuesday morning, hiking poles in hand, but they weren’t quite sure where they were headed.
They had wanted to go to Hurricane Ridge, but it was closed.
They also had their sights set on popular Spruce Railroad Trail, but it, too, was closed.
“We want to do more of the park,” Henry Liu said, adding coastal beaches to the list.
“I don’t believe what our representatives are doing is justified,” he added.
“I’m a little upset,” Liu’s wife said. “I was hoping to do more hiking.”
Added her husband: “It’s all politics, leverage.”
He said the couple soon would be heading to Lake Quinault Lodge in Olympic National Forest.
The facility will not be affected by the shutdown, said Dave Freireich, a spokesman for Aramark Corp.
Aramark runs Lake Crescent Lodge and the park’s Sol Duc Hot Springs lodge, which also is closed.
“We are in the process of suspending our national park operations, and we hope that an agreement [in Congress] will be reached soon,” Freireich said in a statement, declining further comment.
Lake Crescent Lodge guests John and Pat Foster of Chicago were headed for Lake Quinault Lodge later Tuesday.
“Hopefully, someone will get their act together,” Pat Foster said of Congress as he and his wife headed into Lake Crescent Lodge to plan their next few days.
“They won’t make concessions,” Pat Foster said.
“They’re like children,” her husband added. “I think their egos get in there, also.”
Maynes said about 125 children from Roosevelt and Jefferson schools were scheduled to take field trips to Hurricane Ridge this week that had to be canceled.
Jefferson School Principal Joyce Mininger said 58 sixth-graders also were scheduled to travel today to NatureBridge, the park’s outdoor educational center, for an overnight stay.
The trip was rebooked for Nov. 4-6, Mininger said.
There also are 45 third-graders who were scheduled Thursday for a trek to Hurricane Ridge.
“We’re still hopeful that might happen,” Mininger said.
Mindy Watson heads the high school program at the Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences, a private school for grades 6-12 that plans an annual overnight backpacking trip every October for ninth-graders to help them bond together and make the transition to high school life.
Their trip, which took a month of preparation and was planned for this week, has been canceled, even if Congress reaches a budget deal.
The 118 students and 26 adults were scheduled to break into smaller groups and make backpacking excursions into the Sol Duc Valley for three days and two nights.
“It involves a lot of logistics,” Watson said.
“We can’t dangle ourselves for a whole week and wait to see what happened.”
The students benefit from “doing some hiking and kind of being unplugged for a few days,” she said.
“It’s not something that can be transferred to a state park.”
The trip likely will be rescheduled for the spring but won’t have the same impact because the students will almost be finished with ninth grade, Watson said.
“The kids kind of lose here.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
