Originally Posted by
jamawani
Most of the truly outrageous rates are private campgrounds.
But in the past 20 years, the national parks, national forests, & many state parks have switched from park management to subcontractors - cheesy Camps "R" Us firms that bid to "manage" public campgrounds then double the fees right off.
I was run out of Wolf Creek Campground (highway 35 in Utah) for refusing to pay a day use fee of $7.
This place was recently taken over by a private contractor from the Forest Service. He told me that the use fees and camping fees were being strictly enforced because of the cost involved in sending a guy with a truck up there to collect trash and clean the toilet seat. This place was miles from anywhere and I was taking a break on one of the picnic benches. I wasn't stopping for the night.
The site had no running water and a pit toilet. It was at the top of a mountain pass, basically in the middle of nowhere.
He went on to explain how the Forrest Service was a black hole (money wise) that had no accounting for what came in and what went out. The move to private contractors was an attempt to rectify the situation.