Arizona or California BLM Boondocker? A Warning

RVers by the thousands flock to Quartzsite, Arizona each year and camp out on public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. But the BLM has done something you may find a bit dirty. Check out "Death, Taxes, and LTVAs" on our Quartzsite News Blog.

More Woes for LA "Burb" Parking

On July 1, those who parked their RV on the streets of Lakewood, California, a suburb city southeast of LA we apt to find a warning citation on their rig. That's because, like so many other municipalities, Lakewood's governing body and area residents by majority vote determined that RVs on the streets just couldn't be neat. Or, rather, that RV parking was incompatible with safety.

To lessen the blow, the city pursued a plan which would have provided RV storage spots for hundreds of RVs in an otherwise unused tract of land: A space directly beneath California Edison power transmission lines. 'Not so fast!' came the reply from the local fire agency. Putting a "nix" on the proposal, the local fire department determined the risks to both the public and firefighters were just too high. Citing the possibility of electrocution to RVers or firemen should the lines catch fire, the fire department's objection put an end to the storage suggestion.

While one RV trade journal decries the decision as a, 'lame excuse' there may be some precedent for the call. Earlier this year north of Perth, Australia, a 26-year-old schoolteacher lost her life trying to escape a fire caused by the "clashing" of high tension power lines. And for decades the debate has gone back and forth regarding the dangers of electromagnetic radiation associated with high voltage transmission lines.

For the story on the fire department's decision, visit the Long Beach, CA Press Telegram.

Stock photo courtesy U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Agency

Motorhomer Cries "Foul!" at Colorado State Park Policy

An RVer with a motorhome and a "toad car," visiting Colorado's Cherry Creek State Park feels the state discriminates against motorhome owners. On pulling into the state park, the RVer was charged--in addition to his $22 per night campsite fee--$7 for his motorhome and $7 for his towed car. These latter two charges are assessed "gate fees," charged for entering the park. At the same time, he discovered an RVer with a pickup truck pulling a trailer or fifth wheel would only be hit with a single $7 gate fee. Feeling a bit nettled, and in his view, discriminated against, the RVer wrote to our parent website, RVTRAVEL.COM

Our diligent research elves put in a call to the rangers at Cherry Creek. They cheerfully told us, indeed, since the vehicle pulled by the motorhome was a motorized vehicle, there would be an additional gate fee; at the same time since the trailer wasn't motorized, there would be no additional charge. We decided to 'give the dog another bite,' so we checked with the home office. A slightly different version of the tale was related by the agency's public information officer, Clare Sinacori.

Ms. Sinacori told RVs in the News that if the toad car remained hitched to the motorhome, then only one gate fee would be charged--that for the motorhome. We explained that in the "real world," it was highly unlikely a motorhome could be backed into a campsite with a towed car in place. "That would be fine," we were told, "As long as once you were settled, the towed car is hooked back up to the motorhome and isn't used."

Having never visited Cherry Creek, but drawing on our experiences at other state parks around the country, the likelihood of hitching the toad back up to the motorhome once it was "settled," is pretty unlikely. The typical design of campsites would likely not allow for maneuvering the car back around behind a parked motorhome, at least not without driving off onto "sacred" non-paved ground. If that is the case in reality, then RVers, prepare to pay more for the privilege of bringing your toad car with you to Colorado State Parks.

Why such a stringent policy? It may lie with the fact that Colorado legislature reduced its park system's share of general funds by $750,000 for the current biennium. As a result, in the park system's own words, it has, "increasingly focused on cash generation." At $7 per day, per "motorized vehicle," "cash generation" falls primarily to the wallets of motorhome owners.

South Dakota Takes Heat for Campground Upgrades

South Dakota State Park officials are busily building upgrades into the popular Custer State Park. Included in the remodel--pumping electricity to 300 RV campsites, and construction of new "camping cabins" for the non-RV set. But the state is taking plenty of flack for their trouble: Local RV park owners are squealing that their businesses will be hurt by what they perceive as a horning in on their turf.

In an article published in the Rapid City Journal, local KOA manager Josh Daiss complained, "The value of our campgrounds will essentially go down if we're losing business to the state." Daiss and other area park owners are lobbying to get a reduction in their property taxes to compensate for what they project will be losses in customer revenues.

But members of the public are skeptical. In a reader’s response section, a majority of those writing in say the private park owners are calamity howlers. One wrote, "For these private campground owners that claim to be hurt by this, have they looked at their own campgrounds? Who wants to camp there where every slot is right on top of each other and you can't have a campfire in most...plus you pay an outrageous fee to camp in that!"

Another writes, "To the private-owner whiners-get over it! I'm truly sick of your whining and complaining and your always standing in the way of any improvements at all to publicly-owned facilities. You are the ones always banging the drums for and championing the free market, well, let it work in this case! If people like what you have to offer,they'll stay at your facilities and if they don't, whose fault is that? No one forces people to stay at Custer State Park facilities, they make that choice themselves."

Whether you view this as progress or regression, either way, its an ongoing story. Check out the whole story in the Rapid City Journal.