On the first Monday of October under cloud-filled skies, Cabrillo National Monument received dozens of visitors. Hopeful locals and tourists alike piled into cars, often in pairs of two or groups of four, to visit the historic lighthouse, walk the scenic oceanfront paths and journey down to the monument’s tidepools.

However, this time, they were all turned around at an unfamiliar sight: a folding sign with “CLOSED” written across it.

“I didn't understand why they turned us around,” Wendy Lloyd, a San Diego resident who hadn’t been to the monument in a decade, told NBC 7. “I wasn't thinking about the government shutdown.”

“We were hoping to go up to the lighthouse, but, obviously, we just found out, and it didn't even dawn on us it’s because of the government shutdown,” said Tarun Kapoor

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