Park Superintendent Don Neubacher said 50 furloughed workers have returned and that the park is slowly returning to normal after closing for six days.
Nevertheless, "some visitors were really distraught after making the effort to get here and finding the park was closed," Neubacher said, noting that one especially irate visitor had traveled from Ireland. "It was a beautiful weekend, and people wanted to get out and see the park."
Park workers will be paid retroactively for the time they did not work.
"Most had worked hard during the fire, so they caught up at home," he said. "A lot of them had worked seven days a week, so some used the time as a breather."
But, as Neubacher noted, the federal spending resolution that ended the federal impasse only lasts until Dec. 15. "We could go through this all over again," he said.
Workers restoring the park after the fire -- laying down erosion netting, building log terraces and dams -- are now back on the job.
"It's a critical time to continue this rehabilitation work because of the rain and the potential for erosion," Dell'Osso said.
Neubacher noted, however, that the rehabilitation effort isn't limited to park employees; visitors can help by tracking the park's recovery.
The Park Service has begun a Fire Recovery Journal at the Bear Valley Visitor Center, where visitors can record their impressions and observations of the park's revival. The information will be used by resource managers and teachers.
"We felt a lot of people have seen certain scenes that we just don't pick up," Neubacher said. "One of the staff members thought it was a good idea, and we thought we'd go ahead and implement it."