$5 fee to park at Exit 38? WTF?

[assmonkey]

I was up at x38 last night and noticed that there is now a $5 fee to park in the upper lot (the one with the pooper).

 

Questions:

1) Do you have to pay at the lower lot now too? We didn't check because we wanted to maximize our climbing time.

 

B) Which of the nineteen different annual parking passes do I have have to buy now to avoid shelling out $5 per evening of climbing? (Pay to play, baby.)

 

III) This better mean that there is better patrolling of the area. If I am paying $5 per visit now, and my car gets broken into, I am going to be livid. Is this the case? Will the state troopers who set up the speed traps between exits 34 and 38 now do hourly runs through the lots, or do we have to leave boxes of Krispy Kremes on the hoods of our automobiles to entice them?

 

- a s s m * n k e y

[Fromage]

The land managment agency that enacted the fee is the WA State Parks. The upper parking lot with the "weight loss closet" is part of Ollallie/Iron Horse State Park. The fee collection actually began last year. A bunch of state parks that didn't previously have parking fees suddenly started charging them, including the Peshastin Pinnacles. So if you want to go scare yourself on the sandcastles, you have to pay for that privilege, too.

 

You do not have to pay at the lower lot by Change Creek. You do not have to pay at the Far Side.

 

Since the State Patrol is not part of the State Parks agency, I doubt you will see any of them in the area, unless they are on their way to the firing range. The fees go to park maintenance, which basically means sucking out the contents of the parking lot toilet periodically and putting up the portable toilets along the trestle.

 

The popular solution these days is to park along the road at the bottom of the gravel road leading up to the parking lot. On a sunny weekend day the roadway will be lined with cars. It adds a couple minutes to the approach, but is clearly a superior choice for some people who would rather not pay.

 

Don't get your hopes up for law enforcement in the parking areas. There is a thread somewhere on this board discussing plans for organizing climbers to help apprehend the Exit 38 Bandit, so you might want to look into that.

[assmonkey]

Cool, thanks for the info. I haven't parked in that upper lot in a long time, so that makes sense. I'll continue to park low, poop high.

 

- a s s m * n k e y

[hendorama]

Park low and poop high. That is one hell of a motto.