RVers who want to camp in one of California’s state parks may have reservations about the whole matter when they hear the latest: The Golden State parks are staying open despite the budget crisis, but campground reservations have been eliminated in all but 23 of the state’s parks.
Says a notice on the official state park service website, “We will resume camping reservations after we have determined how best to operate within [our] $14 million cut.” This doesn’t mean that camping is out of the question, but it does mean that the lion’s share of California camp sites will be on a first-come, first-served basis until officials figure out how to deal with the dollar cuts.
All this on the heels of news that the recession has done nothing to curb Americans’ appetite for camping. Quite the contrary. Many private RV parks and public camping agencies report a huge increase in use over this last summer. Plenty of RVers have found to their chagrin that traveling without reservations can lead to long nights spent on parking lots when finding “full” signs on campgrounds.
You can find more information on the California State Park situation on the state’s website.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 at 11:18 am and is filed under California, campground. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Does this mean that the August 09 doubling (or, in some cases, almost tripling) camping fees in virtually all California State Parks with camping facilities won’t make up the budget shortfall? Go figure… There ARE still bargains to be had: look for county and regional parks, forest service campsites, and, of course, BLM areas. (Or take your chances at a WalMart parking lot).
I am always amazed at the short-sighted attempts by bureaucrats to bean-count the way to prosperity while only succeeding in shooting themselves in the foot.