As the government shutdown continues, there are more than a few reports on the high-level impact that the funding battle is having. You know, 800,000 government workers not getting paid, reduced inspections of food, delays at border crossings, shutdowns of TSA screening lines causing inordinate delays (as opposed to their usual delays) in major airports, etc., etc.

But there’s not been a whole lot written about the trickle-down impacts. But a quick detour off Interstate 65 on the way home from the Archery Trade Association’s Show last week brought the impact home in a big way.

I grew up not far from Mammoth Cave, and as long as I’ve been alive, the 405-plus miles of underground passageways have fascinated visitors. In fact, Mammoth Cave National Park has been bringing visitors to that quiet area of Kentucky since 1941 - even before the soldiers of World War II came home and began adventuring onto the great American road.

During my lifetime, there’s been a tourism industry based around the cave. Other smaller caves had tours, roadside shops sold rocks (geodes and such), and there were the usual kitschy attractions like “Guntown Mountain”and and Jellystone Camping Park. They’ve been through lots of iterations, but you get the picture. From the “real Kentucky geodes” to “life-sized dinosaur” statues, they’ve all managed to scratch out an existence based on the draw of Mammoth Cave.

Mammoth Cave National Park's closure is having a terrific impact on area businesses. Without that cave, there aren't many reasons to visit the immediate area. OWDN/Photos.

Last week, it looked as quiet along that stretch of highway as the middle of one of Mammoth Cave’s passages with the lights out. Restaurants and attractions were shuttered and traffic was anything but heavy. Granted, some of the more seasonal attractions were shuttered as normal, but restaurants and gas stations less than a mile off I-65 aren’t normally closed down on Friday afternoons when traffic on the interstate’s still heavy.

Driving down the normally congested Mammoth Parkway, the complete absence of traffic wasn’t unusual, it was eerie. My earliest memory of this great national park involves sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic waiting to get into the park proper.

The VIsitor’s Center was equally surreal. There were two vehicles where I’ve only seen hundreds before. One was an electric service vehicle on a charger. The other was idling directly in front of the Visitor’s Center.

When I parked in order to shoot a couple of photos, a lady got out and asked if I was there because I’d scheduled a cave tour. Seems some travelers hadn’t realized the shutdown meant the parks were shut down, so the Friends of Mammoth Cave (a volunteer group) was standing vigil, letting disappointed visitors know they weren’t going to get tours -or anything else due to the shutdown.

This Friends of Mammoth Cave National Park volunteer (who asked that I not use her name) was the only other person I saw during a drive into -and out- of one of the nation’s most popular national parks. OWDN photo.

If/when people arrived came expecting scheduled (and prepaid) tours, she gave all the information available: a single slip of paper that read “If you have reservations for a cave tour, please check in after the government reopens at reservations.gov."

“Ive been lucky,” she told me, “only had one car full of kids I had to disappoint so far. Some of the other volunteers had people get pretty upset with them when they got the news.”

I was surprised to learn that despite the tours and visitor center being closed, the park’s hiking trails were still open -although signs advised everyone “emergency services are extremely limited and hiking, biking and trail riding are at your own risk.”

Driving out, I had a much clearer picture of why there is such concern regarding the shutdown’s impact on our public lands. Without an official presence, there’s really no way for volunteers or local law enforcement to adequately protect the lands. Yesterday, I learned that volunteers, local government and park concessionaires had joined together to put porta-johns at the approach to Bridal Veil falls in Yosemite National Park.

Seems some so-called outdoor lovers were taking advantage of the opportunity to visit for free, but weren’t bothering to observe the basic tenant of responsible outdoors participation: leave no trace.

Even in the outdoors only rules and people willing to enforce them keep us from damaging our irreplaceable national lands.

As the shutdown continues with no resolution in sight, it’s become increasingly obvious that a Congress that suffers none of the consequences has little respect for the consequences of their intransigence.

—Jim Shepherd