A bit unrelated, but here in Illinois Governor Blagojevich did actually follow through on his threat to close several state parks for budget reasons.

Of course, several months later, he got impeached and removed from office, and the new governor reopened them.

Which kind of sucked, because I was looking forward to the free camping opportunities in the former state parks. Instead, I was granted the opportunity to pay for a site, which, if free, would have been a great spot, but at $25, was really lame.

So wouldn't closure of the CA state parks be similar? If they don't have enough money to keep the parks open, they surely don't have enough money to patrol them to root out the unobtrusive bike tourists who may spend a night there. Then you get the best of both worlds: established campsites in nice locations, but no fees and little if any company.

Neil