Gov. Jared Polis orders plan to keep Colorado’s national parks open in a federal shutdown

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis issued an executive order Thursday directing state officials to prepare a plan to keep the state’s four national parks open through a potential government shutdown, days before their potential closure.

With Republican infighting so far thwarting any congressional budget deal, the federally managed parks in Colorado — Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, the Great Sand Dunes, Mesa Verde and Rocky Mountain National Park — will close just after midnight on Sunday, Polis wrote. That could happen on a particularly busy weekend for Rocky Mountain during leaf-peeping season.

Polis’ order directs the state’s Department of Natural Resources and Colorado Parks and Wildlife to develop a plan and identify potential funding needs to keep the parks open through a federal shutdown.

State officials here and elsewhere have worked to keep parks open through shutdowns before. In 2013, the National Park Service reached a deal with Colorado officials to re-open Rocky Mountain National Park. The state agreed to donate $362,7000 to the park service, which had furloughed its workforce, to staff the park, though it later sought reimbursement.