Just curious, has anyone changed their summer plans due to the new park management plan? Are you willing to pay the $75 entrance fee? Have you had any luck with the dayhike reservation system? I got skunked. And I had to change my time off due to the odd/even license plate policy.
What has your experience been?
_________________________ If you only travel on sunny days you will never reach your destination.*
* May not apply at certain latitudes in Canada and elsewhere.
I wasn't aware that NPS had changed their policy. I just came back from a two-nighter in Saguaro National Park and the policies and permit prices (+$1.00) were much the same as they were in '09. I got a permit for the Grand Canyon for this coming May: same policy and price as the last time I got a permit in '09.
I don't know about the entrance fees; they could have changed and I wouldn't have been aware because I use the lifetime senior pass I got for $10.00 about 1999. Truly this was the best money I've ever spent.
Could this be something specific to one of the California parks. As I said, I've heard nothing and I'm usually aware of what is going on in the western National Parks.
Finally, entrance fees are a thing of the past for me. Got my Golden Age pass! Yipeee! Yes, some areas I avoid due to the difficult regulations. The SF Bay area is one. Fees for entry, fees for parking, fees for everything! State Parks are getting out of my range with price. Henry Coe raised rates. It depends, though. The fees for the shuttle to Devils Postpile were worth the cost for me last summer (this fee is not covered by Golden Age passes either). The Mammoth Lakes area has a wonderful free suttle service to augment the Devils Postpile bus fees so you can really get around easily.
I tend to agree with restricting Half Dome day-hikes. The amount of people on the cables was really not safe.
Here is a thorny question. Where there is really limited access in our national parks (such as Half Dome cables) should US citizens who pay taxes get priority over foreign tourists? Should there be a "foreign" quota? Same for Grand Canyon.
Registered: 02/03/06
Posts: 6800
Loc: Gateway to Columbia Gorge
California state parks are really pricing themselves out of business! I haven't checked the camping fees this year, but last year they were only a couple dollars per night less than a room at the Motel 6. So much for trying to save money by car-camping when I go visit my daughter!
I too take full advantage of the federal Senior Pass (mine is a Golden Age Pass since I got it before they changed the names). It substitutes for the Northwest Forest Pass (required for almost all trailhead parking in Pacific NW national forests) and gets me into a lot of Federal places for half price.
The Washington legislature is coming up with a similar pass, but pricier, which will be required for WA state parks, state game lands and state DNR lands. The alternative, they say, is closing all of them. It seems they have plenty of money for other stuff (like thousands to refinish the governor's desk), though! I probably won't be buying one, which means I won't be hiking a number of places on the north side of the Columbia Gorge where the trailheads are on DNR land. The one state park I frequent in WA (at Westport, where my son #3 and his family have a vacation home) has city parking right outside the state park's parking lot, so there's no need for me to get a pass.
Oregon is managing to keep its state parks open with lottery funds. That seems to be the one source of state revenue that isn't drying up.
I don't do much with national parks except drive through, since they won't allow my dog Hysson on the trails. Kennel fees are going through the roof. Hysson whines all the time when he's in the kennel or with my DIL, and I don't think having him under stress for a week is a good idea.
Edited by OregonMouse (04/01/1101:54 PM)
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May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view--E. Abbey
I do not think we have been had. The "raise the fee" thing is an ongoing topic. The "restrict access" is also an ongoing thing. Regardless if the original post was 1970, 2002 or yesterday, it is only getting worse.
What gripes me about camping fees, is that it is the same price for one person or six. Yosemite has Camp4 - a walk in per-person fee campsite. I do not see why there cannot be more of these around. Same with backcountry permits in Sequoia-same price for one person or 15! Another thing, I have seen lots of RV's parked at pull outs on Hwy 1, evidently camping overnight. Yet it is illegal for me to pull over in my car and "camp".
Registered: 12/26/08
Posts: 382
Loc: Maine/New Jersey
Thank makes no sense to me wandering daisy....strange!
April Fools or what? Have we been had?!
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"To me, hammocking is relaxing, laying, swaying. A steady slow morphine drip without the risk of renal failure." - Dale Gribbel
All of the new regulations are explained in NPS directive 04012011.
look at the directive number you have all been had. The license plate thing has been used for other things, and the fee things has been discussed, so it sounds real enough, but its a fake. Have a nice night everyone.
Registered: 12/26/08
Posts: 382
Loc: Maine/New Jersey
Wahoo!!! LOL!
_________________________
"To me, hammocking is relaxing, laying, swaying. A steady slow morphine drip without the risk of renal failure." - Dale Gribbel
I really wouldn't mind the gov raising fee's or taxes if they would just spend it wisely, which they don't. As said before, they are pricing themselves out of business. Maybe it's there sick way of trying to prove that nature is more profitable if exploited instead of left alone. ???Oil well on Whitney???
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