Nature lovers flock to Yosemite National Park every February to witness the majestic “firefall” event, but this year’s crowds were met a different spectacle: an upside-down American flag hung on a summit to protest the Trump administration’s cuts of national park service employees.  The flag was hung on the top of the famed El Capitan summit, a 3,000-foot vertical rock formation in Mariposa County, California, on Saturday evening by a group of upset Yosemite employees.  An upside-down American flag is traditionally a sign of “dire distress,” according to the United States Flag Code. The demonstration came at a time when all eyes are on the summit for the firefall viewing event — a phenomenon that unfolds in February when Horsetail Falls, a seasonal waterfall on the east side of El Capitan, takes on an orange, lava-like glow as the sun sets.

The event attracts a flurry of photographers who wait hours for the perfect shot. “We’re bringing attention to what’s happening to the parks, which are every American’s properties,” Gavin Carpenter, a maintenance mechanic at the park who supplied the flag, told The San Francisco Chronicle. “It’s super important we take care of them, and we’re losing people here, and it’s not sustainable if we want to keep the parks open.”