New fee hikes at Oregon state parks—How much more will you pay?

Want to RV in a Beaver State park? Oregon’s Parks and Recreation Department is rolling out some bad news. A press release says the agency will be upping not only camping fees, but fees to reserve a spot. And look for a more uniform approach to nicking out-of-state campers an additional 25% charge. Fee hikes at Oregon State Parks will hit some harder than others

Fee hikes at Oregon state parks—”keeping pace with rising costs”

Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD) is increasing its camping, parking and reservation fees to keep pace with the rising cost of utilities, operations and maintenance.

Most of the increases range from $2 to $5, depending on the fee.

The park system has experienced record visitation as well as the impacts of rising costs and inflation. Utility costs, for example, have increased by 28% over the last 4 years, but most fees have remained the same. Depending on the fee, the last increase was anywhere from seven to 15 years ago for base fees.

“We know that raising fees by any amount can be challenging for visitors, and we don’t make this decision lightly. We try to keep costs and fees as low as possible to minimize the impact while still fulfilling our commitment to stewardship and recreation,” said OPRD Director Lisa Sumption.

Fee hikes calendar for 2024

Here’s your calendar for how the fee changes will phase in.

October 15, 2024:

OPRD will increase its base camping fees for the first time since 2017. The increase applies to all camping reservations for 2025. Starting on October 15, 2024, all reservations made for 2025 stays will include the fee increase.

Increases in base rate by site type:

• $2 increase for miscellaneous sites (includes teepees, meeting halls and other facilities)
• $3 increase for tent sites (includes horse tent sites, horse group sites, group tent) and primitive sites (includes overflow, fly-in and walk-to-sites)
• $4 increase for RV sites (includes full hookup, electrical, horse RV and group RV sites)
• $5 increase for cabins and yurts (includes rustic, mini, totem, and deluxe sites)

Seasonal rate increases were adopted in 2020. The seasonal adjustments will be added to the new base rates. As in previous years, summer rates are $2 more for tent sites, $3 more for RV sites and $5 more for cabins/yurts.

And they keep going in 2025

January 1, 2025:

OPRD will increase its reservation fee from $8 to $10 per site starting January 1, 2025. This fee has not been increased since 2010.

Daily parking permit fees will increase from $5 to $10 at the 25 parks that charge a fee for day-use parking. Parking permit fees were last increased in 2009. The annual parking permit and the two-year permit fees remain the same, at $30 for the annual permit and $50 for the two-year permit.

July 1, 2025:

OPRD will expand the 25% out-of-state surcharge for RV campsites (required by state law) to all site types for out-of-state campers.

New camping rate ranges replace the existing ones. These ranges set the lowest and highest fees that OPRD can charge over time. It gives OPRD’s director the ability to change fees in the future, as needed. The last rate range update was adopted in 2018.

So where do Oregon state parks get their money?

OPRD has three main sources of funding: A little less than half comes from constitutionally dedicated lottery funds, about 15% comes from recreational vehicle license plate fees and roughly 35% comes from park fees from visitors. OPRD is not funded by taxes.

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