Maybe the NPS should turn over more of its campgrounds to private enterprise to run. There's no valid reason that a campground, on free land, in an area frequented by RVers, shouldn't easily be able to break even. If the government can't figure out how to do it, I'd bet my last cent that private enterprise can, even though they have more obstacles than if the gov. was running it.
I ran some numbers recently when Yellowstone announced it was going to open two weeks late to allow snows to melt from the roads rather than spend the money to plow them. I don't recall those exact figures now, but I took the number of visitors to the park the first two weeks of May last year and compared the cost of opening the roads against the gate fees. Again, I don't recall the exact figures, but there was no way it made sense to postpone opening the park. No way to a business owner. To the government, I'm sure it made perfect sense.:h
Luckily for those who wanted to visit the Park in May, the Chambers of Commerce in Cody and Jackson are run by business people, not government workers. Though the cost wasn't cheap (thinking $200K for Cody and $80K for Jackson), they knew they needed tourist traffic for income. Yellowstone management apparently doesn't have any incentive to keep tourists coming in the gates, as they get paid the same with or without visitors.
