Grayson Highlands requires reservations for backcountry parking

[TallPaul]

Heads up.
Parking for the backcountry lot has always cost $ but you could pay at the entrance station.
Reservations are now required in advance to park in that lot.
Guessing this will cause folks to park elsewhere. I see this weekend is full.
Thanks to my buddy Chappy for pointing this out.





Cost is $8.00 per night per car plus one time $5 fee. I can’t remember what it was before the new rule but that seems higher. And no fee before.

Looks like they reserve 40 spaces - at least that was the highest # available that I saw available.

[Silverpalm2x]

I saw the sign when I was up for the Grayson fall festival hang. It started Oct 1

[brianb]

Thanks Paul


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[OneClick]

Dirty. Not close enough to affect me but I always hate seeing more flaming hoops no matter where it is.

I just don't do reservations and permits; don't care how quick or easy it may be. Just one stubborn SOB.

[jeff-oh]

Dirty. Not close enough to affect me but I always hate seeing more flaming hoops no matter where it is.

I just don't do reservations and permits; don't care how quick or easy it may be. Just one stubborn SOB.

OC, I know what you mean.

For the State Park it makes unfortunate since. The on line system gets them their money, they do not have to staff the gate as much and there are no cash envelopes laying around. The real bee in my bonnet about all this is the $8 reservation transaction fee reserve america tacks on. Highway robbery.

You can still park at Elk Garden and the other NF trail heads with out a permit.

[OneClick]

My first thought is always limiting use, while securing that cash. I could be totally wrong, but I do miss the days of arriving at any trailhead at 9PM on a Friday and seeing one or two cars. Now it's "will I even get a spot". Selfish me wants that back.

In the days of "social media-induced overuse" you can never really know. Keeping riffraff out? Always fine by me!

[jeff-oh]

My first thought is always limiting use, while securing that cash. I could be totally wrong...

Don't think so.... I might add securing the cash without any extra effort.

[Shug]

Backpack Life is getting complicated. They changed the Reservation system here in Minnesota for State Parks and it makes backpacking at Crosby Manitou which is a backpack only park a bit more complicated. Used to be you could just pay for non-reservable sites at kiosk. No more.
I don't like it.
Shug

[Cabmanhang]

Backpack is getting complicated. They changed the Reservation system here in Minnesota for State Parks and it makes backpacking at Crosby Manitou which is a backpack only park a bit more complicated. Used to be you could just pay for non-reservable sites at kiosk. No more.
I don't like it.
Shug

I don't care for it either.

It seems the reserveamerica lobby has a nice stranglehold on the parks systems. Fortunately, here in SC they decided to create their own system and it has been much nicer than the old reservations through RA.

I get the fact that the parks have to come up with creative ways to fund themselves, as tax dollars are not fully funding them. However, abandoning the kiosk pay system seems unnecessary. Pay on site should still exist in concurrence with the ability for folks to book ahead through an online res system.

Parks that used to be free now charge admission. Parking itself is now becoming a little cash cow.

As demand grows, I expect the fees will as well. It would be great to see the parks finding other creative ways to generate extra capitol without making the parks harder to access.

[wsp_scott]

Thanks for this info, I was planning on going there last weekend (went to Dolly Sods instead) and would have been really annoyed to find this out when I got there.

Looking on the website, I can't find anything about paying for overnight parking. Anyone else have any luck?

https://www.reserveamerica.com/explo...40172/overview