San Diego's National Park Unit Cancels 100th Birthday Party

On the first day of the government shutdown, it was Yosemite's 123rd birthday. On the second day, it was Redwood's 45th. And next Monday, 14 days after the National Park Service was told to shut its doors, it will be Cabrillo's 100th.

By then, the shutdown may be over -- but who knows, really -- yet that will be too late for Cabrillo National Monument's weekend of planned events, which staff and the public have been anticipating for over a year now. The celebration was set to begin Thursday with a series of events, which will be rescheduled to a later date, according to Superintendent Tom Workman in a statement today.

Cabrillo is a small national park unit located at the tip of Point Loma Peninsula overlooking the San Diego bay and skyline. It not only celebrates history -- it's near the spot where Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in 1542 first stepped onto the West Coast of what is now the United States -- but it protects a natural ecosystem that includes tidepools, a major kelp forest, and Mediterranean plant habitat.

Like SoCal Wanderer on Facebook and follow @SoCal_Wanderer on Twitter.