Utah State Park Pass changes

[BearLakeFishGuy]

For what its worth, the Utah State Parks annual pass costs more than just about any other state. I wrote an article about it on this forum about a year or so ago. Most parks in the midwest charge about $20-$50 for an annual pass. Other western states charge about $50-80 (I looked them all up when I made the comment). Anyway, for what we get at our state parks we pay quite heavily for compared to other states. I asked this question of the DNR leadership and was told that the legislature pulled back most of the supplemental funding to state parks from the general budget and therefore the parks were forced to raise their fees to ensure they were mostly self-sufficient. Personally, I don't think that is the right way to go (and neither do many other states in the USA, where the legislature, lottery, etc. fund the operating budget for their state parks). Anyway, I think it is RIDICULOUS that the feds charge $23/daily to launch at Pineview and its $20/day to launch at many state parks here in Utah. So, I, like others on BFT, spend $125 for a yearly pass. All it takes is 6 visits and the yearly pass pays for itself (or I try to use this rationale to make myself feel better about getting ripped off here in Utah).