Idaho wants your cash.
Look, I get prioritizing residents to a degree but double the price?
Farragut State Park, ID.
Been to Idaho. Pretty state. When we went we camped for free, in a tent, on national forest land. That said, these prices seem high for state parks but are in line with what private campgrounds charge these days. Guess it is what it is. Wouldn’t stop me from going but I’d make sure there’s some specific reason to visit. Does come off as being kind of unwelcoming which maybe is what they are going for.
State residents pay taxes to support state recreation areas whether they use them or not. It makes sense residents pay less, but the pricing looks like someone looked at what private parks charge and upped the fees.
They announced this last year. The “nonresidents pay double” applies only to the five state parks most heavily used by non-residents; Farragut is one of them. They were going to do this with some other facilities, too (I forget what, exactly) but were told that since they get federal funds for them if they did this they’d get their funding cut off.
I’ve also heard that some other states (notably Oregon) were looking at special fees for Idaho residents. As in “if your state doesn’t screw Oregon residents then we won’t screw you, but if it does then we’ll reciprocate.”
Oregon is looking at doing this as well, I would not be surprised to see it gaining traction across the US.
Idaho resident here, living about 20 miles from this state park. To be able to even enter the park I have to pay $10 on my registration each year. But that’s not what these prices are about. I don’t want to get into politics here, but during the Covid shutdown Idaho was pretty much open. Our restaurants, shopping and all of our recreational areas. We stopped masking after a couple months, but our neighbor to the west was still in full lockdown for almost a year. There, you couldn’t even sit in a boat by yourself in the middle of one of their lakes without a mask, even if you were alone. It was pretty brutal.
So, long story short, Idaho was inundated with folks coming across the border with out of state license plates. It was only natural, north Idaho is 20 miles from Spokane and Spokane Valley with about 300,000+ residents. The Idaho residents started complaining, they couldn’t get parking at the parks, the boat launches, etc. Just my opinion but I think this pricing difference is the result.
It is common in many states.
Idaho suffers from an over influx of visitors that make it difficult for Idaho residents from getting reservations.
Those prices are more than reasonable, at least for me living on the East Coast.
I see this more as in-state residents getting a discount rather than out-of-staters getting reamed.
Source: Non residents….
