A self-described national park fanatic, Lucas Wall was excited to start a weeklong trip to visit seven National Park Service sites in Virginia on Thursday. The Washington, DC, resident prepaid for a rental car to drive to Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, Richmond National Battlefield Park and Prince William Forest Park, among others.

But the government shutdown has thrown those plans into disarray. Wall, a retired writer, is now checking the parks’ websites and reading through the agency’s shutdown contingency plan to see what might still make sense to visit – though he says they aren’t very helpful. He’s hoping he can go to parks that are mostly outdoors, though it won’t be the same if he can’t enter the visitor centers, talk to the rangers, watch films or videos about the site and pick up brochures and maps.

“I’m scrambling to figure out how to modify my plans,” said Wall, who is considering adding some state parks to his itinerary, though they don’t have as much history. “I haven’t booked any hotels yet because of this confusion and uncertainty … because of this threat of a shutdown.”

In a photo from April, Lucas Wall poses at Ceder Breaks National Monument in Utah. Courtesy Lucas Wall

Wall is far from alone in having to contend with the widespread uncertainty sparked by the first federal government shutd