National Park Closures due to Shutdown

We were recently at a WalMart and my wife had to use the restroom. She walked in and was shocked at the mess. I guess it was pretty bad.

She tracked down someone in management and they called for someone to clean the stalls while my wife waited. While waiting, she and the attendant had a conversation that went something like this:

Wife: Wow, this place is a mess. Does this happen often.
Attendant: More than you want to know.
Wife: Makes one wonder why anyone would trash a public restroom. I bet "they" don't do this at their own homes.
Attendant: Oh, this is clean compared to some of their homes. I have a couple friends and this bathroom compared to the bathrooms in their houses makes this one look like a hospital operating room.
Wife: REALLY?

I don't get it. We visited Devil's Tower National Monument this summer. $20 to get in. We hit Glacier National Park. $35 to get in. I am all-in with pay-to-play rather than confiscate (tax) and allocate. Both parks were very active. We got to Devil's Tower mid-morning, and when we left two hours later the vehicle line at the entrance was literally a mile long. Completely full parking at Glacier National Park. On a week days. If I had to guess they are pulling in high 5-figures to low 6-figures per park per day.

With these kind of prices for admission I don't see how the government is having to subsidize the operation. If the National Parks are operating at a break-even point, why do they need to be shut down? And if they are operating at a loss, why are they not charging more for admission??

It seems to me shutting down the National Parks is more about posturing and politics than it is about funding. The billion dollar (thanks, Google) National Parks concession business is already run by private businesses like Xanterra. Maybe we should turn over day-to-day operations to them completely and get the government out of trying to run a business. No reason to have a mile long line at the entrance and have one person operating the toll station, it would not be tough for private business to do better.

My $.02....
-Eric

Of course it is ^.
Here in WA, the snowmachine trails that are groomed by the USFS are either reduced schedule or not being groomed. While the private contractors (to the USFS) are grooming.
And it is a pay to play system. Over $50 for a registration per machine, most of which is supposed to be for grooming. Wonder where my $200 is?

Oh wait, I was told the USFS used a bunch of sled reg and Sno park pass money to expand and separate one of the Sno Park lots for motorized and non motorized trail use. Considering the revenue for snomachines is probably 100or 1000x that of the non motorized snoparks, I can only surmise where most of the money came from.

Eric&Lisa wrote:


With these kind of prices for admission I don't see how the government is having to subsidize the operation. If the National Parks are operating at a break-even point, why do they need to be shut down? And if they are operating at a loss, why are they not charging more for admission??

I have a wonderful Michigan State Park close to my home, and deal with the managers there on a regular basis. Our park is a "cash cow" (like Yosemite, Glacier, etc) - but money collected there also supports smaller parks/boat ramps/game and rec areas, etc. So even though they rake in the money, they are constantly pinching pennies.... I'm sure the same goes for the Federal and National Parks.

So why are they shut down? In the whole scheme of things, they are not important to our immediate survival. And it really PEEVES the American citizens when this happens because we love our parks and will surely squawk about it. It's the same reason a school system having a strike cuts the funding for the buses first ;-)

Eric&Lisa wrote:
I don't get it. We visited Devil's Tower National Monument this summer. $20 to get in. We hit Glacier National Park. $35 to get in. I am all-in with pay-to-play rather than confiscate (tax) and allocate. Both parks were very active. We got to Devil's Tower mid-morning, and when we left two hours later the vehicle line at the entrance was literally a mile long. Completely full parking at Glacier National Park. On a week days. If I had to guess they are pulling in high 5-figures to low 6-figures per park per day.

With these kind of prices for admission I don't see how the government is having to subsidize the operation. If the National Parks are operating at a break-even point, why do they need to be shut down? And if they are operating at a loss, why are they not charging more for admission??

It seems to me shutting down the National Parks is more about posturing and politics than it is about funding. The billion dollar (thanks, Google) National Parks concession business is already run by private businesses like Xanterra. Maybe we should turn over day-to-day operations to them completely and get the government out of trying to run a business. No reason to have a mile long line at the entrance and have one person operating the toll station, it would not be tough for private business to do better.

My $.02....
-Eric

Unfortunately it doesn't work that way.

Fees collected on National Park goes to general fund and only gets allocated to the parks based on budget. Effectively, cash cows subsidizes the smaller parks.

And even that, National Parks are underfunded and deficits are either done by private donations or the manpower needs are filled by unpaid volunteers.

It's sad to see the public trashing the parks. I have to stop here with my comments, but I'm certain most RVers are not the citizens responsible for the trash.

And you all wonder why we have so many rules and regulations.

U.S. National Parks Overwhelmed By Garbage, Human Feces

Yosemite Sam1 wrote:
Unfortunately it doesn't work that way.

Yep, but it's a lot easier to make knee jerk complaints than it is to learn. Especially if the truth doesn't match up with preconceived notions.:R

People are slobs. They have no problem bringing their stuff into a park however, knowing there is no trash collection, they cannot bag up & take their trash out.

How difficult is it to bag up a weeks worth & take it with you?

Try multi night cruising boating. There are no dumpsters on the water. You crush the cans, compact anything else as best as possible & the only thing different from camping is that the biodegradables go overboard for the fish.