Just curios if anyone knows if they're charging 5 bucks to get into the park to fish like they were talking about doing.

5$ to drive in,there is no charge if you walk in I believe.

It's not just Flaming Geyser. I believe that you have to pay $5 to park in any state park. If the park is run by the city or county, I think you're fine, but state run parks have the fee. God Bless you, Gary Locke!!

As long as they keep parks open I don't have a problem with the fee. It's alot cheaper than alot of other forms of entertainment.
A nice day at the park with the family for $5? Sounds pretty cheap to me.

Oregon has been doing it for years at certain parks. I figured it was a matter of time before it happened here.

I can't remember how much the yearly pass is but it's pretty cheap. $50 or something like that. Make 10 visits to a park and it's paid for.

ya, i was driving into flaming geyser last week and jus looked up to see 5 bucks sumthing, so i reversed it to read the sign, and it said blah, blah, 5 bucks, blah blah..so i turned around and left..i will walk in if i have too..yeah, gary locke your da man (thumbs down) try taxing tribal gambling instead of taxing the people who pay taxes allready..

Yeah, something about paying to enjoy God's gifts doesn't quite seem right to me either. However, putting it into perspective a little; $5 to spend a day fishing or picnicing or whatever in some pretty nice parks isn't near as bad as paying the launch fee for the pathetic excuse at Point Defiance.

Plus I'd rather pay a small fee for upkeep than see a park deteriorate to the point of closing or being sold to Weyehauser.

Not to change the subject of this thread, but what in the hell do they do with all of the money generated from the lottery?

The problem is that unless they have changed the way state parks is run from 2 years ago when I lived in one (my ex-husband was a park employee and we lived on-site at 2 different parks in the Seattle area), all that money goes into the General Fund and is not earmarked for parks department themselves.

Sad, park should at least get to keep that money within the department. Things may have changed since then though, but I doubt it.

When I was living in Sacramento in the early 70's, one of my favorite fishing,swimming,boating,& picnicing park(I think it was a county park along the Sacramento river)had a toll fee to use the park. The State parks in Cali been having a toll fee for many years, we might as well get used to it now.

It's $5 a day or $50 a year. The pass is good at all state parks that charge a fee. I think the year runs Jan.1 through Dec 31

Jerry

we all thought that you were a " hippie"

A special note on parking outside the park. The area's tweakers(meth addicts) have taken notice of the fee too, and have begun preying on those of us who can't afford the pay the fee right then.
I had my truck stolen outside the park. I lost a $15.00 radio and a pair of leaky waders. However; Washington State Law states that any vehicle found abandoned, regardless if it was stolen or not, is to be impounded at the owners expense without any notification. $300, all of my kids' Christmas money, went to Royal Towing out of Black Diamond. Luckily, 'ole blue started right up and I was able to avoid further storage fees.
Lock your doors, set your alarms, and use one of those steeringwheel locks. If the thieves don't finish the job,..... the State of Washington will!

Gary didn't do anything toward this, he's just a lame-o. Say "God Bless you, Tim Eyeman!"

i can afford the 5 bucks, but im not gonna pay it..after all the gas tax, gas to get to wherever im goin, insurance..im not gonna pay another fee..

It's not Tim Eyeman who's throwing billions upon billions of dollars at Sound Transit.

the state said today that the number of people visiting state parks dropped 50% in the last year since they instituted the 5 buck charge....probably the ones that are the poorest members of society can now no longer enjoy them ....

Long before Tim Eyeman was a household name, our Olympia representatives were trying to figure out how they could impose this fee on park users. Several times they tried to enact park admission fees, but legislators who truly represented/feared their constituents killed the plan. Granted, the $5 fee keeps some troublemakers out of the park. Inside the park, your possessions are less apt to be taken by the petty thieves that occasionally prowled the parking areas. I used to stop at Kanaskat Park to check out river conditions, and talk to a fisherman, or two. We used to take out of town guests on a drive thru the park, all the while promoting the WA State Park system. Sometimes, we would stop just to look for future campsites, and maybe use the restrooms. Usually these park visits took less than 30 minutes. Now, I'm one of the 50% who are no longer visiting WA State parks for any reason. Charging people to camp is OK; charging them to picnic is reasonable, charging anyone to enter a public park, and walk about for a few minutes, is dangerously close to charging them for breathing fresh air. Your WDFW access decal ought to get you into any state park IMHO.