Quite the scam, indeed!

That’s good news for the state parks in Ca (where I live) and I hope federal agencies follow suit.

Over the pandemic, we saw nearly every CA park jump onto reservecalifornia.com, the state’s own rec.gov equivalent. As expected, walk-ups are no longer a possibility at places where they always have been. It’s become the all too familiar the 6 month in advance scramble.

Still, the National Forests and most wilderness areas remain on rec.gov. In Humbolt-Toiyabe for example, the state charges a $3 rec fee (refundable with cancellation) but BAH charges a $6 reservation fee(never-refundable).

When 2/3 of the money is going to BAH, who is working for who?

Humbolt-Toiyabe will likely be increasing their rec fees to $12 this year, which I support but fear it will be accompanied by an increase to the res fee. BAH will want their outsized cut. https://carsonnow.org/story/08/01/2022/humboldt-toiyabe-national-forest-proposes-fee-increase-hoover-wilderness-permits

Oh, it’s indeed terrible. I have no doubt people do it. The lovely campsite Joan and I went to over December is now under the BAH umbrella, and I doubt all the booked sites are getting used. Locally, there’s a push to make some FCFS sites under the BAH umbrella now, too. I heard Chaco Canyon is an absolute mess with the kiosk system not working and effectively blocks FCFS sites in many ways. Grrr

Locally, I also talked to a visitor who mentioned he reserved a campsite, enjoyed the stars and the campfire…and went back to this expensive Air BnB to sleep in a bed that evening. Yep, he took up a site to have the camping experience..without the camping. But what’s $30 to the 10% when you spent $250 a night or more?

On a better note, California is attempting to put more teeth into people getting a penalty at their state parks, at least – https://www.rvtravel.com/finally-penalizing-shows-california-1092b/

“If no-show within 24 hours without notice, the entire reservation will be forfeited without a refund.
If no-show within 24 hours, the site will be made available for walk-up reservations.
…
If someone no-shows three times or more in a calendar year, future reservations are banned or limited. “

The fees won’t do much, but freeing up the site AND banning repeat offenders will undoubtedly put some teeth into the law.

It’s a shameful mess with obvious solutions.

Keep sounding the alarm, Paul.

Alas, fewer parks are letting you make RSVPs the day of. Confusing for sure.

I didn’t realize anything about the nature of the rec.gov deal but I’ve run into conflicts and limitations at those parks depending on how you make your reservation.

Thanks for the kind words and for sharing.

I’m not surprised the fees went up. Yikes!

I am disappointed, but not surprised, that the rec dot gov people also have a monopoly on education bookings. It’s a crime that the people who most need this type of empowerment get effectively blocked from experiencing this critical part of the culture. My wife also does educational outreach for students of modest means and mentioned the difficulties she has as well. Appalling.

It’s the American way, I think, of what Martin Luther King said over two generations ago “The problem is that we all too often have socialism for the rich and rugged free enterprise capitalism for the poor.”

The BAH’s of the world get subsidized at our expense, and the poor get crumbs, at best. And the increasingly smaller middle gets squeezed.

A few days ago to my shock and disgust I learned that, for reasons  that were never explained  to me, if I wanted to schedule a trip to one of these sites, in this case the African Burial Ground, I was no longer  to deal with the site itself. Instead, I was now obliged to sign up with something called recreation.gov and schedule through them, specifically through their education group section.  When I tried to do this I learned that for the privilege of my students visiting the federal site that had been previously free I would now have to pay a $10.00 “fee.” 

Naturally, this mightily pissed me off. Nonetheless, as I was given no choice in the matter and I wanted my students to experience the African Burial Ground, I took out my credit card and paid the “fee.”

The next day learned the tickets I had been sold were for Veteran’s Day and therefore should not have even been available for a school trip. I then cancelled the reservation and , naturally requested a refund. I was then informed that the “fee” for cancellation in a completely computerized system was also $10.00 . 

Talk about a two headed nickel! 

By this point I was enraged and spoke to low level employees of recreation. Gov, all of whom were deeply sorry by informed me repeatedly that there was simply no way the money could be refunded. It was as if the hand of God had reached out and shut the door. 

I kept demanding to speak to their supervisor and was at last put in touch with someone called a “refund advocate” who, despite the title, informed me that the only possible (if unlikely ) route to a refund was through the African Burial Ground itself.

I spoke to the education liaison of the African Burial Ground and was told she had no idea what recreation.gov was taking about.  

I then looked around and found your article concerning the creation of the  parasitic organization called recreation.gov and suddenly it all made a disgusting, appalling kind of sense. 

So, I thank you. Just wanted you to know that the reach of   Booz Allen Hamilton runs further than you even imagined.     
 
Keep up the good work.