OREGON STATE PARKS RANT

donn0128 wrote:
Bob,
As a camp host, albeit retired I can hear your pain. This has been going on for the past 4 years or so. Even summers park availability has been near zero. Couple of reasons for that. OPRD upper managment chose several years ago to put their available money into new parks instead of upgrading current facilities. So we now have underused parks like the monster in north central Oregon, while funds get cut to the rest of the parks. Its omly going to get worse in the near term as more people buy/try RVing. After Labor day most parks start cutting out their temporary help, so there are fewer employees. The end result close parts of the park.
BTW have you tried Stub Stewart yet?

I will add to Don's post. Closing of Loops and parks in the off season has several reasons.

During the off season there is a lot of maintenance that is done within closed loops. Sometimes service upgrades.

Lack of campers to fill, this is changing currently we are seeing more campers into the shoulder season and off season. The park we are currently in kept the back sites open an extra two to three weeks this year due to the number of campers.

Reduced cost of operations, it takes fewer Rangers and Hosts for fewer campsites. The goal is to have enough sites to handle the camper demand. It appears at this time we are seeing more and more campers that are camping in to the off season. It takes time to document these and establish a trend and how to plan for the increase in off season camping.

To ksg5000, Keven, there are four other parks, that are less then 50 miles from Beverly Beach, all with beach access that are open all year, Cape Lookout, Nehalem Bay, Devils Lake, and South Beach why not try one of those parks, rather than cancel?

Weather is another reason,cold on the east side, and valley, storms on the coast.
We have winter hosted at Beachside, the park is closed from October 31st to March 15, the reason is winter storms. During our time there the Pacific Ocean came into the campground along with a good amount of driftwood some of it pretty large.

Oasisbob, Donn0128 mentioned that the new Park In NE Oregon took dollars from maintenance, well the park he mentioned you try LL Stub Stewart was the first new park in the state in 30 years, when it opened 10 years ago. These parks are new are more campsites available.

We have hosted at Stub's and it is a very nice park about 35 miles west of downtown Portland. Hiking and biking abound, it is located at the halfway point on the Banks to Vernoina State Trail, large sites with 50 amp electrical and sewer.

The link below will take you to where you can provide feedback to OPRD.
Oregon State Parks