Originally Posted by baddog

I was in Arches National Park yesterday and talked with a couple rangers about how it will affect them.

Apparently this happened in the 90's (forget, 92 or 97). Essentially, they lock all the gates to all the national parks, and only mandatory employees will come in to work. Last time they were off work for two weeks, and received the back pay, and did not lose any vacation time they may have.

In a nutshell, the employees got an extra paid vacation and the park service lost the income they would have had if they stayed open.