National Park Service has it all wrong!!??

rjxj wrote:
They raise the rate 800 % for retirees yet you can't stay over 14 days in a park that has 100 vacant sites. I asked a park ranger why that is, his response was that it lessens the impact on the environment. I said well what would the impact be if all the sites were rented? I Said if you wanted to lessen the impact wouldn't they reduce the number of sites? He said he doesn't set the policy. I said yes I know. They need the money but won't rent the sites. Never seen any business with that policy. But then, they are accountable.

The ranger you talked with knows the rules, but clearly doesn't have a sense of why the rules got established.

The 14 day limit is specifically in place to provide an equitable use of sites and eliminate squatters and those having a sense of "owning" a particular site. It is not uncommon in many campgrounds that the best sites (those near the lake, river, etc) get taken up and used all the time, while those in loops that are farther away get little use. Without a 14 day rule, some of those popular sites would be taken over (in a sense, owned) by one camper for a month or more. Some parks and forests actually do allow the less desirable and therefore less used sites to be occupied for more than 14 days (sometimes for an entire season) in order to get use and generate revenue on sites that else-wise would see little use. However, there is a special system for those sites and they frequently done on a lottery basis.