Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I totally agree.  I ride in the Cuyamaca National Forest (Cuyamaca  
Rancho State Park) all the time.  So do a lot of other folks.  The  
Descanso endurance ride this weekend is being held there.  Lots of  
organizations hold events there - and they pay fees.

One thing they could do - right now - to raise income is to start  
charging for use outside of the visitor center and official  
campgrounds.  As a "for instance" - lots of folks ride into the area  
from two places:  the Descanso / Merigan ranch trailhead, and the  
trailhead at the Sweetwater Bridge.  Neither of those areas charge a  
fee - and they get a fair amount of traffic.  Possibly in the past the  
amount of traffic was considered to be 'too small' to justify the  
overhead for collecting fees, but areas like this should be re- 
evaluated before they just shut everything down.

If it is a choice between paying a fee or not being able to ride there  
- I will pay the fee in a skinny minute.  Heck - I'll pay for a yearly  
pass.  That system is already in place, but Cuyamaca State Park does  
not require a Wilderness Pass.


On Jun 11, 2009, at 9:48 AM, k s swigart wrote:
> And there are all sorts of revenue sources associated with the parks  
> other than the fees collected at the visitor's center and the  
> campgrounds.  For instance (and to make this endurance related), if  
> Malibu Creek State Park is closed so that the Malibu Endurance Ride  
> doesn't happen this fall, then not only will the state lose the  
> revenue it will collect by charging a fee for using the park, but it  
> will also lose all the revenue it would have collected from the  
> gasoline tax it will collect ffrom all the people who buy gas to  
> drive their rig to the ride....which is really difficult to quantify  
> (which is why cost accounting is so hard to do).
>
> <snip>

> The state would do better to try to figure out ways to cut the  
> expenses of operating the parks without closing them...or to charge  
> more for people to use them, so they become bigger revenue generators.
>
> kat
> Orange County, Calif.
> :)

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