Volunteers, along with two sewage pumping trucks, wait to head into Joshua Tree National Park at the west entrance to help with clean up Thursday morning. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).

Paul Henderson carries a sewage hose towards a restroom in Joshua Tree National Park Thursday morning. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).

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National Park Service Ranger Anna Marie Gilay, who has not worked in over 2 weeks, hands out a Joshua Tree National Park map to a visitor Thursday morning at the north entrance to the park. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).

National Park Service Ranger Duane Vigar prepares to help clean out a restroom in Joshua Tree National Park Thursday morning. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).

A couple from Rome, Italy, who wished not to be identified, look at a Joshua Tree National Park map after entering the north entrance to the park Thursday. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).



Jessie Morrow, from East Sound, Washington, sets up camp in the Hidden Valley campground as her husband rock climbs nearby Thursday in Joshua Tree National Park. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).

A couple from Rome, Italy, who wished not to be identified, look at a Joshua Tree National Park map after entering the north entrance to the park Thursday. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).

Joshua Tree National Park Ranger Anna Marie Gilay speaks with a visitor as they enter the northern entrance of the park Thursday. It was Gilay’s first day back at work in the park in over two weeks, still without pay. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).

Marco Braun, 22 from Giessen, Germany, wakes up after sleeping in his rental car outside Joshua Tree National Park Thursday morning. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).

A vehicle heads towards the west entrance of Joshua Tree National Park Thursday morning. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).



Visitors head towards the west entrance of Joshua Tree National Park Thursday afternoon. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).

Visitors take a picture at the west entrance of Joshua Tree National Park Thursday afternoon. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).

A vehicle enters the west entrance of Joshua Tree National Park Thursday afternoon. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).

A Joshua Tree National Park Ranger answers a visitors question at the west entrance to the park Thursday afternoon. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).

Justin Blevins (right), from East Sound, Washington, climbs a rock face in the Hidden Valley campground in Joshua Tree National Park Thursday. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).



Justin Blevins, from East Sound, Washington, climbs a rock face in the Hidden Valley campground in Joshua Tree National Park Thursday. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).

Justin Blevins, from East Sound, Washington, climbs a rock face in the Hidden Valley campground in Joshua Tree National Park Thursday. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).

Justin Blevins, from East Sound, Washington, climbs a rock face in the Hidden Valley campground in Joshua Tree National Park Thursday as his friend Noah Waldron assists. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).

Justin Blevins, from East Sound, Washington, prepares to climb a rock face in the Hidden Valley campground in Joshua Tree National Park Thursday. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).

A Greater Roadrunner hides in scrubs near the north entrance to Joshua Tree National Park Thursday. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).



A U.S. Park Ranger gets back into his vehicle after opening a side road within Joshua Tree National Park Thursday. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).

Joshua Tree National Park Ranger Duane Vigal thanks clean up volunteer Rand Abbott Thursday morning. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).

Paul Henderson carries a sewage hose towards a restroom in Joshua Tree National Park Thursday morning. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).

A sign posted on a Joshua Tree National Park restroom asks for donations towards the clean up of the park Thursday. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).

A sewage pumping truck heads into Joshua Tree National Park to help with clean up Thursday morning. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).



Maps of Joshua Tree National Park sit in a box at the west entrance early Thursday morning. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).

Marco Braun, 22 from Giessen, Germany, wakes up after sleeping in his rental car outside Joshua Tree National Park Thursday morning. Despite the partial federal shutdown Joshua Tree National Park remained open Thursday, January 10, 2019. The park has minimal staffing and campgrounds are now open. There is no park entry fee at the moment. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG).

TWENTYNINE PALMS — The National Park Service made the decision to avoid the scheduled closure of Joshua Tree National Park on the 20th day of the partial government shutdown, despite escalating levels of lawlessness, unsanitary conditions and vandalism that included visitors chopping down two of the park’s namesake trees.

The temporary closure of the park was averted Thursday, Jan. 10, by an infusion of Federal Land and Recreation Enhancement funds. The money was used to clean restrooms and restore damaged picnic grounds, authorities reported.

“The park is open. And we are opening all the campgrounds,” said NPS Ranger Duane Vigar.

Vigar returned to work Wednesday to help oversee the cleanup of park toilets and haul waste from overflowing trash bins.

He had been furloughed for more than two weeks due to the partial government shutdown, which has cut off funding to about 80 park rangers and a total of 120 park employees for nearly three weeks. He is part of a skeleton crew of park rangers.

“We are all back without pay,” he said.

At the north entrance gate, Park Ranger Anna Marie Gilay was receiving visitors and handing out maps.

It was her first day back in two weeks, she said. The park had few visitors Thursday; many stayed away thinking it would be closed.

At Joshua Tree National Park Thursday Jan. 10, 2019 pic.twitter.com/ys9AMxDQ3U — Steve Scauzillo (@stevscaz) January 10, 2019

Earlier reports seemed to indicate the park would be completely shut down on a temporary basis starting Thursday until personnel could clean restrooms, pick up trash and assess the environmental damage.

Camping had been suspended since last Wednesday, Jan. 2 due to overflowing toilets and visitors committing infractions such as offroading in delicate habitats.

Vandalism, lawlessness

Although the park was closed to campers until Thursday, rangers said many visitors ignored the prohibition.

Without rangers to run programs or crews to maintain park restrooms, bands of volunteers cleaned pit toilets and hauled out truckloads of trash every night.

But ultimately, they couldn’t keep up with 10,000 to 20,000 daily visitors during the busiest time for the park, which receives about 4 million visitors a year.

As cars drove into untouched lands, spoiling ancient landscapes, some cut through chains and drove into protected areas, said the NPS.

A photo released Tuesday by the NPS shows a Joshua tree cut down by vandals. Superintendent David Smith, in an interview with the National Parks Traveler’s founder and CEO Kurt Repanshek, confirmed two trees were recently destroyed.

Several visitors set up camp under one of the oldest and most protected trees in the park, a deciduous tree in the Like Oak Area.

“People were driving off-road and camping under it. That is illegal,” Repenshek said Smith told him.

The closure reversal made for 72 hours of strange twists and turns, much like the branches of the Joshua trees.

Vacationers Jessie Morrow and Justin Blevins’s emotions ran the gamut. The Washington state couple had driven three days only to find the park closed Wednesday evening.

“We were 45 minutes from the gate when we saw on the website it was closed,” said Morrow. “We spiralled into depression.”

But on Thursday, they went back to find open gates and cheery rangers. They were camping in Hidden Valley, next to magnificent rock formations — heaven for her climber husband, Justin.

“This is primo,” Morrow said from their campsite. “It has never been this open.”

Some rangers ordered back to work from their furlough seemed pleased, even though they most likely won’t get paid on Friday.

“We work here for the people,” said Vigar, who spent the past few weeks at home taking care of his wife who broke her foot.

Vigar said it was difficult to stay on the couch and “listen to all those horror stories” about destruction of park resources.

On Thursday, volunteers reported that someone had stolen the mine cart from a park exhibit.

Rand Abbott, a volunteer since the second day of the shutdown, said human feces was found behind rock formations and drivers were doing doughnuts in out-of-bounds protected areas.

“We are guests of this park. The big horn sheep, coyotes, road runners, desert tortoises, bobcats — they are the actual residents, not us,” he said.

Delicate environment

Joshua Tree National Park straddles the Mojave and Colorado deserts about 130 miles east of Los Angeles and is known for stunning rock formations, pristine desert landscapes and the bristled, Dr. Seuss-like trees from which the park gets its name.

David Lamfrom, a wildlife expert and nature photographer based in Barstow with the National Parks Conservation Association, said Joshua Tree is one of the most unusual places in the world.

Having the park open with too few rangers to enforce park rules may have caused irreversible damage to an ancient ecosystem, he said.

“I am frightened. We are holding our breath, hoping for the best,” he said.

The Mojave and Colorado deserts in the park contain trees that can be 1,000 years old. A Joshua tree can take 65 years or longer to grow. It can easily be destroyed by a vehicle.

“The desert is ancient and incredibly fragile. When it is damaged it takes generations or even longer to repair because there is no moisture, so things grow in a much longer time frame,” Lamfrom said.

“Joshua Tree is a treasure. In some ways, it is one of the most beautiful places in the entire country.”

German tourist Marco Braun, who faced limited access at national parks in Southern Utah, slept in his car with friends Wednesday night, hoping for a chance to see the rocks and landscapes that make Joshua Tree famous.

“It is crazy that one man can shut down everything,” he said, referring to President Donald Trump.