We don’t often travel, but like every Minnesotan, we had a dream of enjoying some warm weather in the middle of an unusually early, cold winter. We made plans to take our camper and motorcycles out to Red Rock Canyon near Las Vegas. They have a wonderful campground there, with many nice riding opportunities. With a government shutdown looming, we checked on the status of national parks. We were informed that the national parks would not be affected by the shutdown, and all national park campgrounds would be open.
So, we loaded up the bikes, food, clothes, and the pups, and away we went. After driving for 26 hours we pulled into the Red Rock Canyon campground, and it looked perfect! There were lovely campsites with shade structures, fire rings, and picnic tables.
Unfortunately, there was also a sign at the gate stating that due to the government shutdown, the campground was closed. WTF?!?! We drove in as far as we could to talk to the campground’s volunteer host. He informed us that this specific campground was managed by the Bureau of Land Management under the Department of the Interior, and that department was closed by the shutdown. I told him that we had just driven halfway across the country to come to this particular campground. Of course, there was nothing he could do. He told us that the “scenic loop” through the park was open, but very short-staffed. We didn’t have time to check it out, though, because we needed to find a place to camp.
There was absolutely no camping available in Las Vegas, so we ended up 15 miles out of town at a boondocking site. It was not ideal, but at least we had a place to sleep for the night.
The next day, Christmas Eve, we went back to Red Rock to ride the scenic loop. We pulled in to pay the fee to drive the loop. The fee booths were unattended, but the gates were open and people were just driving in. So we drove in, parked, and unloaded the bikes. The pups stayed in the camper. We had a wonderful ride of the entire scenic loop. The views were amazing! We took our time and stopped several times to enjoy the scenery. Our plan was to come back the next day and do some more riding and exploring. We exited the scenic loop through the exit gate, and rode back up the highway to the park entrance to get our truck and trailer.
Within the 90 minutes or so that we were in the park riding, the authorities had come and locked the main gates. Our truck, trailer, and dogs were locked in! There was no official by the gate explaining the situation. There was no sign. Just a locked gate. There were probably 200 cars parked along both sides of the state highway leading to the main entrance gate. Crowds of people from all over the world were milling around by the entrance gate, and many were choosing to climb over the gate and walk in.
This is what the government shut down looked like on Christmas Eve, 2018:
Merry Christmas from that bastard Trump!
My husband jumped the gate and walked in to find out how to get our truck out. There were law enforcement people inside who told him that they didn’t dare open the gate because then all the people would get in. They told him to get in the truck and drive the loop all the way around to the exit.
That took him about 40 minutes. During that time, I was standing outside the main gate waiting and watching the people. Several asked me to use their cameras to take pictures of them sitting on the locked gate.
Many were from other countries, and everyone wanted so badly to get in there. At one point there were probably 100 people just milling about, with quite a few jumping the gate. Many others were just sitting in their cars on the roadside. People were very disappointed and disgusted, but remained pretty good natured about it. One guy said to me, “This is what happens when people vote for an ass for president”.
We had planned to stay for 3-4 days, but left early after two days. So thank you, Mr. Trump, for spoiling my vacation by taking your marching orders from Fox and Friends.
