Beautiful desert views. No crowds. What's not to like about camping in Death Valley National Park, especially when there are no rangers about to ticket you for camping illegally?

A photo of campers distributed January 1 by Basin and Range Watch, a nonprofit working to conserve the deserts of Nevada and California, purported to show three campers off the Keane Wonder Mine Road east of Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley. They had their easy chairs set up, tent in place, and were unloading their SUV.

"Gov shutdown encouraging illegal camping in National Parks. Seen here off Keane Wonder Mine Road in Death Valley National Park, these people drove off the road about 200 yards on desert habitat. Sign says do not drive off rd," a caption to the photo read.

Park staff, most on furlough, could not be reached Wednesday morning to confirm the incident.

Meanwhile, as the partial government shutdown continues to show the ugly side of keeping national parks open without adequate National Park Service staff, one Yosemite National Park ranger voiced concerns about managing crowds with a skeleton staff.

"We held Yosemite open to 4th of July-level traffic with no support staff whatsoever," the ranger wrote in a message that appeared on Facebook and Twitter. "We did so with 4 rangers in Wawona/Badger, 4 in Yosemite Valley, and (may be slightly off...) 4 in Mather. That is 12 people working while we were seeing 240-270 cars per hour coming into South Entrance. Let that sink in. TWELVE people. In a park the size of Rhode Island. Badger sold almost 1,000 lift tickets today. (Their limit is 1200)."

Elsewhere across the National Park System, ranger-led snowshoe hikes were canceled in places such as Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah and Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota, funding from the Great Smoky Mountains Association to keep visitor centers and restrooms open at Great Smoky Mountains National Park ran out Tuesday, and campgrounds at Joshua Tree National Park in California were to close to overnight use Wednesday due to accumulating human waste and garbage with no maintenance crews to remove it.