NH Parks Still Open Despite Shutdown

New Hampshire parks remain open despite the federal government shutdown.

Some residents may have misunderstood statements that all national historic sites would be closed due to the federal government shutdown, thinking that this also included state parks like the Flume Gorge and Cannon Mountain.

"Are any of the parks shut down in NH due to the gov shutdown?" asked one person on the New Hampshire State Parks Facebook page.

"Will the gorge be closed due to the shutdown?" asked another.

The answer is no. New Hampshire's state parks are self-funded and remain open in the event of a government shutdown, said Amy Bassett, spokeswoman for the New Hampshire Division of Parks and Recreation.

Many state parks only have weekend hours now that the summer is over, but none of them are closed due to the shutdown.

"Our biggest parks, day-use parks, are only open on weekends," she said. "But the Flume Gorge and Canon Mountain are open."

That doesn't mean there aren't sites in New Hampshire that are affected by the shutdown. The Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish is the only manned national historic site in the state, Bassett said, but the White Mountain National Forest is also a national historic site.

Bassett said the state parks division has received some inquiries from residents asking about the shutdown, "but we haven't been inundated."