Fronteras

Businesses and others who think the Grand Canyon should be at least partially re-opened, even while the federal government is shut down, are planning to stage a protest this afternoon.

Clarinda Vail owns and operates the Red Feather Lodge, just outside the park and she says the protest will be peaceful.

“We respect the Grand Canyon National Park and its rangers’ position they’re in,” Vail said. “It’s going to be setting up right on the boundary of Grand Canyon National Park.”

Vail says they’ve collected more than $100,000 to keep the park open, and she doesn’t understand why the kind of fundraising effort that worked in 1995 won’t get the canyon re-opened now.

Park Superintendent Dave Ueberauga has said federal officials have decided National Park operations are a core operation of government and that none of them will be re-opened during the shut-down, no matter who puts up the money.