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US Park Rangers stand at the closed gate to Joshua Tree National Park, in Joshua Tree, California on October 2, 2013/AFP

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Tourists kicked out of landmark US parks

“We are continuing to provide retail, dining and limited transportation services for overnight guests in the park through Thursday,” she said.

“If the shutdown continues, we will try to reschedule those who have upcoming reservations or cancel their booking and provide a refund,” she added.

Some 715,000 visitors flock daily to National Park Service sites across the country, on average in October, according to CNN.

Other world-famous tourist attractions shuttered until further notice include the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park, and the Alcatraz prison island in San Francisco Bay.

Joshua Tree National Park, two hours’ drive east of Los Angeles, is famous for its bizarre cactus-like trees and weird rock formations, which draw climbers from around the world, especially at this time of year between the high heat of summer and the cooler winter.

It, too, is closed, with park rangers giving newly arrived visitors the bad news: they will have to wait until politicians in Washington sort out their differences on spending, before they can enter.

In the Grand Canyon, visited by 18,000 people a day on average at this time of year, spokeswoman Kirby-Lynn Shedlowski said the gates were closed from 6am Tuesday.

“All recreational opportunities in the park, including hiking, biking, mule rides, visitor centers, they’re all closed,” she told AFP.

People who were in accommodations in the park on Monday night had been “given 48 hours to make additional arrangements, and then they have to leave the park,” she added.

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“We’re just trying to maintain an orderly shutdown and closure of the park,” she said, adding: “Having to turn anyone away is hard.”

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