FILE - Visitors walk through Muir Woods National Monument on July 24, 2025.

On any given year, Muir Woods National Monument draws hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the world to take in the pristine views, trails and wildlife that make up one of the last ancient redwood forests left in the Bay Area. 

On Wednesday, however, tourists were greeted by an unexpected sight at the entrance: a sign informing them the Marin County park was “closed due to a lapse in appropriations” after the federal government shutdown went into effect at 12:01 that morning. A ranger on duty stood in front of a growing line of cars and tried to offer alternative nearby parks for them to visit, but there was no way around the disappointment. The reservations many of the visitors had booked months in advance had been cancelled.

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One of them was Abel Philip, who told NPR he was visiting the 544-acre forest from Mumbai, India, and had pulled over onto the shoulder of the road while he deliberated his next move. “So that is something, you know, very inconvenient, especially for tourists coming all the way from India,” he said. “So yeah, that's pretty sad, I would say.”

As of Sunday morning, the park remains closed — you can still go through the process of trying to book a shuttle or parking reservation on its website, but an........

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