Colorado’s national parks are slowly reopening after the country’s longest federal government shutdown caused many of the parks to cease work on behind-the-scenes projects and maintenance from Dec. 22 to Jan. 25.

When the days are short and visitor numbers low, many parks take the time to work on special projects and hiring for peak tourist season in summer. That was all put on hold during the shutdown. Parks also reported some physical damages that are still being repaired, in some cases delaying their reopening.

“Our initial challenges will be to reassess hiring priorities and park projects for this year’s operations to limit impacts as much as possible,” Kyle Patterson, spokeswoman for the Rocky Mountain National Park, said in a news release.

The park’s Fall River Visitor Center remained open during the shutdown, staffed by Rocky Mountain Conservancy, a private nonprofit. Park staff and volunteers were barred from coming to work after the park’s funding lapsed.

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What it will take to get each park back to full operations is still being assessed, said Vanessa Lacayo, spokesperson for the National Park Service Intermountain Region.

“The priority is trying to get back to normal,” Lacayo said.

After combing through a mountain of 900 emails, Arlene Jackson, spokesperson for the Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction and the rest of the staff have to resume preparations for the summer season. With a 35-day delay in hiring, maintenance and special project work, summer operations could be impacted or delayed, she said.

“It is just a matter of regaining time we lost,” she said.

Also, snow piled up, melted and then refroze along the historic Rim Rock Road at the monument. That is still being cleared.

In southwest Colorado, Mesa Verde National Park is still closed as workers try to repair road damage following several large rockfalls.

Rocky Mountain National Park resumed partial custodial operations after receiving some fee funds on Jan. 12. Toilets and trash pick up were maintained by a limited number of staff, which helped ease the park back to full operations once funding was restored.

Patterson expressed gratitude to Coloradans who helped voluntarily maintain the park and assisted park service employees while they were without paychecks for over a month.

Not everyone was helpful: Some people illegally drove around locked gates through meadows and more dogs went on trails, which is against park rules, according to the release.

Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado had minimal physical damage but also lost valuable time.

“We were very fortunate here, there was no significant vandalism or trash or human waste,” spokesperson Kathy Faz said.