All 50 State Park prices going up Jan. 1.

[sande005]

Indirectly. It's the laws of supply and demand......the American way. When occupancy goes up, price goes up. Maybe it's just me....after spending 40 years in property management.

You obviously may have LOTS of experience in private industry, but none in the public sector. There is no direct correlation between usage and price in that realm - it is all about state budgets and voter perception. So you cannot categorically claim that all states will be raising prices soon. Some probably will. Some probably will not as they don't want to raise "taxes". Some will build new or improved campgrounds. Some will close or drastically cut service at theirs. All depends on who is currently elected, and what they perceive the voters wanted them to do. Operating it as a business is far, far down the list.

[joesmainship]

sande005, you are probably correct. Management of state parks bare no correlation to the way private parks are run. Last Summer we were planning a trip to Branson, MO and wanted to stay in Missouri's Table Rock State Park. For weeks on end, we checked their website and got the same "no availability" result. We finally gave up and booked a stay in a private park. While we were there, we drove out to check the park out for a possible future stay. It was quite a surprise to see that the park was less than half full with lots of availability. When I inquired about it at the office, we were told that only a small number of their available sites can be reserved. Most are available on a first come, first serve basis. Their explanation was that they wanted state and local residents to have first choice at available spots. I can understand that, I guess. Many states give their state residents discounts and others perks. After all, it is their tax monies paying for the park. We are fairly new at RVing, but seems you can get the best results from a state park by placing a phone call. Just an observation.

[JCZhome]

I hope that sande005 is right and that I'm wrong. However, I've been going to state parks, reserves, etc. all my life and I've never seen prices go down....only go up. And I've never seen a park close except in the event of a major disaster (storm such as the keys, floods (in the mountains, etc.) and they always open back up. And politicians being what they are.....always look for ways to increase revenue. Again, I hope that sande005 is right but that's not been my experience or observation in 66 yrs.

[sande005]

Well, your first post transformed hiking, as in talking a walk, to hiking as in raising prices. Making it seem like all states were having price increases this year due to high demand. Not so, by any means. Yes, over the long term undoubtedly prices will go up. But it will be extremely variable across the country as to when and how much. So an alarm was raised, when there was no smoke or fire.

Here in Minn. we've recently gone to almost all sites being reservable. Coupled with the low fees, it becomes very, very easy to reserve a site "just in case", and then just not use it. With low funding for staffing, it becomes a crap shoot as to whether a specific park is able to identify those "no shows" and release the site to someone else. Now if they were politically able to bump the rates to non-refundable $40-$50 a night, that might just curtail the problem...as well as give them funds to police it! And then we all would have a better chance at getting a place to camp. But no way will that kind of pricing fly for an organization that receives most of its funding from taxes.

[orbiker]

Oregon State Parks are doing this. LINK

Flexible Fees will allow the Oregon State Parks and Recreation
Commission to set overnight camping fees based on the need to serve
more people, using slightly higher rates at popular parks to fund lower rates
and attract new visitors at parks with capacity. State parks will provide
access to quality, affordable recreation for all Oregonians.

[JCZhome]

And National Parks and State Parks are cutting expenses by using more and more Workamper Volunteers. A couple of months ago we attended the Workampers Rendezvous up there in the Ozarks in Ark. They had representatives there from a number of Naitonal Parks (Yellowstone had two different vendors soliciting for workampers) and a number of state park systems were there looking for workampers. It's almost become a Workampers choice of where they want to go.

Babe and I accepted a position at an RV Park in Rapid City this coming summer so we'll be up there for the Sturgis Rally and we'll be able to ride the Black Hills again, many times over the summer when there's not much traffic. Looking forward to it. Then, next winter we're supposed to go down to Boca Raton, Fl. to sell Christmas trees for two months in the winter. I can't imagine what it'll be like selling xmas trees when it's 80F out. LOL