Google Doodle honors Yosemite - a national park you can't visit

Tuesday's Google Doodle honors Yosemite National Park. But the park remains closed due to the federal government shutdown.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The "doodle" on Google's homepage on Tuesday honors the 123rd anniversary of Yosemite National Park -- which is currently closed, due to the government shutdown.

All 59 national parks are managed by the federal government, so they are victims of the shutdown that began Tuesday at midnight. The parks' rangers are among the 821,000 federal employees on furlough.

Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) told CNNMoney its doodle isn't a nudge at the government about the shutdown -- just the usual historical hurrah.

"The timing today is an unfortunate coincidence," said Jennifer Bloch, a senior manager at Google.

Congress officially set aside Yosemite's 1,500 square miles for federal protection on Oct. 1, 1890. It is the closest national park to Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. The park draws 4 million visitors a year,

Given that fall is the preferred hiking season for many outdoor enthusiasts, the shutdown is ruining the plans of hundreds of thousands of park visitors nationwide each day that passes without a congressional budget agreement.

Nature lovers can't even learn more about national parks virtually. The websites for both the National Park Service and the Library of Congress were pulled down as a result of the shutdown.

For park enthusiasts looking to get their fix during the shutdown, snack company Nature Valley's Trail View project allows users to hike virtually through four national parks.

Source : http://money.cnn.com