USFS CG with "must reserve" requirement
Recently stopped at the USFS Sycamore Grove CG near Red Bluff, CA, where I was last in June 2016. First thing I noticed was this sign. Drove around the CG and many spots had an "open" sign...
Forum Discussion
Like someone said, reservation only eliminates the need for each park to have a cash management system in place. It would also reduce problems with people driving in and setting up in someone else's previously reserved site. Those instances require camp hosts and often rangers to sort out. Many of the smaller parks have neither hosts or rangers on site making either a reservation only or a totally no reservation system optimal. From a guest's point of view, making reservations, even day of stay, is less of a problem then driving around trying to find a vacant first come/first served site during the busy season. So if you have to choose one or the other, reservations only leaves fewer people driving around aimlessly.
As for added fees, it is likely those fees are a work-around for some mandated site fees. The state and federal parks can't just set whatever fees they want, they have to be approved by who knows how many layers of bureaucracy. Kind of like how KOAs get around paying the 10 percent franchise fee on site rentals, they just have all sorts of additional fees that aren't subjected to that 10 percent. One thing is clear to me. There is no way any government entity could handle and manage a reservation system for $8.00 a reservation, they are just not that efficient.
As for added fees, it is likely those fees are a work-around for some mandated site fees. The state and federal parks can't just set whatever fees they want, they have to be approved by who knows how many layers of bureaucracy. Kind of like how KOAs get around paying the 10 percent franchise fee on site rentals, they just have all sorts of additional fees that aren't subjected to that 10 percent. One thing is clear to me. There is no way any government entity could handle and manage a reservation system for $8.00 a reservation, they are just not that efficient.
