Having replaced the entire water and sewer system of the Furnace Creek Campground, added a new bathroom, and expanded electrical service for RVs, Death Valley National Park officials are now proposing an increase in camping fees to help cover the costs of providing electricity to the campground.
If approved the fees, which now are being floated for public comment, would take effect in mid-October.
Along with the infrastructure improvements at the campground, crews created three new group sites there. The improvements include the installation of full hook-up capacity at 19 campsites, replacement of the entire water and sewer system, a new bathroom in the group site areas, rehabilitation of the current bathrooms, repair of flood damaged areas in the tent walk-in loop, development of three new group sites, and a new check-in kiosk.
The 19 rehabilitated sites now include water, sewer, and electrical hook-ups. The proposed pricing is $30 per night for sites offering full hook-ups. The current price for RV and tent campsites without full-hook-ups is $18 per night; sites without hookups would remain $18 per night under this proposal.
Nightly campground fees are collected under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, Public Law 108-447 (118 Stat. 2809), enacted by Congress as part of the 2005 Omnibus Appropriations Bill. This legislation has allowed the National Park Service to provide on-the-ground improvements to visitors at recreation sites across the nation. Death Valley National Park started the rehabilitation of Furnace Creek Campground in February 2012 and will near completion at the end of this summer.
Public comment on the proposed fees is being taken through May 17. You can find the proposal, and comment on it, at this site.
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Fee, Fee Fee. The Jarvis NPS. In the Smokies, campgrounds are closed for the season due to the Sequestration. These are edifices built with taxpayer money that taxpayers now are locked out from using. Think about that for a minute before you sign off on increasing fees for the NPS that has difficulty managing their purse.
Remember who controls the purse strings. Congress pased the sequester, affecting NPS budgets. "Oh, and here are some new national monuments you have to manage with the same amount of money, or less." Members of congress (of both parties) love creating national parks - it's good for the local economy - but cut the overall NPS budget at the same time. The money has to come from somewhere.
Same thing with Big Bend opening the border again.After 911 they closed it.We stopped at the park and found it closed about 2 years after 911. What has changed since 911.They can't tell me that it's not expensive to reopen that border.
On a side note about the border 2 years ago we went to the South Padre Islands.The TV station available was from Browsville,TX. They were inviewing people that lived along the border after that Agent was killed in Mexico.The guy was pretty funny he was saying that the Mexicans bring ladders along to go over the fence.His feeling was that the fence didn't stop anybody from crossing the border.Look at what our nation has spent on border patrol and what has it done to stop anyone, nothing.Just another case of wasteful spending and window dressing.