Lobo rates going up?

[griffon]

My re-read on it from the website is that the activity fee is doubling. The reservation fee is Just 'pre-pay' of the activty fee. I swear I hav been charged both from time to time but regularly.. honestly I think the folks at the booth don't know their own system half the time.
The current site makes no mention of the impending fee hik, which a fine very disguinouse (lets slip it through with no one noticing until to late, but we can we 'informed' guests, regardless of how the small the sample size).
Dive Information | Point Lobos Foundation

[h=1]Dive Information[/h]SCUBA diving, snorkeling, kayaking, and stand-up paddle boarding reservations can be made for Point Lobos State Natural Reserve. Reservations can be made as much as 60 days (two months) in advance or as little as one day in advance.

Activity Fees
Scuba Diving - $10.00 per person
Snorkeling - $ 10.00 per person
Kayaking - $ 5.00 per Kayak
Stand-up Paddle boarding - $ 5.00 per person
Boats / Vessels - $ 5.00 launch fee per vessel (collected at entrance station)

IMPORTANT: Please note that California State Parks is working on a new fee collection system utilizing credit cards. In the meantime, we ask that all reservations be paid for by CASH or CHECK only. After reviewing the important information below about your dive at Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, please send your payment by mail to:
Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, ATTN: Dive Reservations, Route 1, Box 62, Carmel, CA 93923
Once your payment is received by the Dive Coordinator, an email will be sent to you to confirm that it has been received. Be sure to write your dive date and confirmation number on your check. Please bring the confirmation email with you as proof. All reservations must be paid for within 10 days of receiving this email or your reservation will be cancelled.
We appreciate your patience during this change!
PAYMENT OF RESERVATION FEES
Point Lobos dive fee is $10/person, two divers per team. Online reservations are $20 per dive team. A dive team of 3 is permitted; however, the $20 online dive reservation fee still applies, whether you have 3 or 4 divers. Divers arriving during the week without reservations pay the $10 per person dive fee, along with the vehicle entry fee at the entrance to the Reserve. There is a $5 boat launch fee for all vessels, including kayaks and paddle boards. These use fees are in addition to the $10 per car entry fee and will be collected upon arrival at the Reserve. Diving, snorkeling, kayaking and stand-up paddle boarding reservations are non-refundable and non-transferable once confirmed by payment.

 

[zf2nt]

Griffon...Be careful you don't confuse the Point Lobos Foundation with State Parks (or, to be more specific, California Department of Parks and Recreation. The former is a bunch of volunteers from the Carmel area who try to do good works. The latter is a monstrous bureaucracy operating with a $700,000,000 budget. All the information we get seems to come from the Point Lobos Foundation, since $700M is hardly enough to pay the bloated salaries, provide for lavish pension and health care benefits, AND operate an informative web site.

 

[griffon]

Well, fair point, but that actual makes what I said worse


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[Eric Sedletzky]

Oh boy, so there's a "foundation" now too on top of the state, great!
So you're dealing with another little self appointed nanny besides the big one.
I was born and raised in Carmel BTW. We used to go to Point lobos all the time when I was a kid back in the early to mid 60's.
Even then Carmel was starting to get invaded by these protectionist types that would move there from other places with lots of money and claim it as their own. Before long they would form these overseer pressure groups because they didn't want anybody else there once they got theirs.
I'm a native and we couldn't even live there past the 70's because the money was getting so rediculous.
Man how times have changed, makes me want to cry. It really brings me down when I visit there and see where I grew up and what's become of it.
Did you know that Carmel was nothing more than a little art colony town at one time and artists moved there because it was cheap and they could live on almost nothing.
Monterey was nothing more than a stinky sardine fishing village with a bunch of drunken G.I.'s hanging out at the arcades a few blocks up the hill from cannery row. I remember those days when Vietnam was going on and seeing all the enlisted sitting on the bleachers at Fort Ord. We could hear all the artillery fire at our house right below Carmel High school.
The coast was as free as the wind.

And now these schmuck little "foundation" weenies want to charge 20.00 per diver plus all the other fees!
God I'm glad I don't live there anymore.

And you guys think this incremental BS is normal?

 

[griffon]

Oh boy, so there's a "foundation" now too on top of the state, great!
So you're dealing with another little self appointed nanny besides the big one.
I was born and raised in Carmel BTW. We used to go to Point lobos all the time when I was a kid back in the early to mid 60's.
Even then Carmel was starting to get invaded by these protectionist types that would move there from other places with lots of money and claim it as their own. Before long they would form these overseer pressure groups because they didn't want anybody else there once they got theirs.
I'm a native and we couldn't even live there past the 70's because the money was getting so rediculous.
Man how times have changed, makes me want to cry. It really brings me down when I visit there and see where I grew up and what's become of it.
Did you know that Carmel was nothing more than a little art colony town at one time and artists moved there because it was cheap and they could live on almost nothing.
Monterey was nothing more than a stinky sardine fishing village with a bunch of drunken G.I.'s hanging out at the arcades a few blocks up the hill from cannery row. I remember those days when Vietnam was going on and seeing all the enlisted sitting on the bleachers at Fort Ord. We could hear all the artillery fire at our house right below Carmel High school.
The coast was as free as the wind.

And now these schmuck little "foundation" weenies want to charge 20.00 per diver plus all the other fees!
God I'm glad I don't live there anymore.

And you guys think this incremental BS is normal?

Ah, no. State parks takes the money and make the rules. As far as I know the foundation folks provide the useful website, and do the good stuff the government won't (fix trails, make improvements etc). They are a non profit.
Course I could be wrong, dive reservations are made through the foundation page, the regular .CA page refers to there instead of using their own reservation system (odd but maybe that is camping only).

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[Eric Sedletzky]

No other state park that I know of charges all these rediculous fees for irrelevant activities.
At Gerstle cove for instance (which is a reserve just like Lobos) charges the standard $8.00 gate fee and you're in. There is no extra charges for diving, kayaking, paddle boarding, boat launch, etc.
At Leo Carillo in Socal the gate fee is $10.00 (Southern Cal is more) but that includes all activities.
It sounds to me like what's going on here at Lobos is a bunch of self appointed conservationists formed a group calling it a "foundation" and somehow got it approved by the state as an addition to state oversight, with the intention of adding stewardship. Instead what you have is a sort of attemp at pseudo privitazation by them managing the flow of people and behavior management. Face it, they don't like you, that's why they are doubling the diver fees. They're probably tired of seeing what they think is an overbaring and an eyesore diver colony there on the weekends. Give them a little power and they take all. They are a run-away power and money grab and there are no checks and balances to tell them different.
What it should be if it was a true state park would be $8.00 or $10.00 day use fee at the gate only, and in the case of Lobos since it is such a popular place for tourists and people to go, and environmentally sensitive, they should have a max vehicle/person occupancy in the park at any given time. It should be first come first serve for everyone, no reservations, and a limit on divers per day or use at any one given time. That wouldn't be hard to do if they kept track at the gate. As soon as someone leaves then another can enter to take their place if they are at capacity. Adding all these extra fees for non environmentally impacting activities is nothing more than an extortion and a money grab. What do they do with the money, anybody really know?
I could see a volunteer foundation suggesting a donation, but to mandate more money privately on top of taxes we pay for public lands is unacceptable.

And they can't tell divers how to dive in the Pacific Ocean outside of the high tide line, that's rediculous.
I'd tell them to go f ck themselves!

Now I'm pissed.

 

[zf2nt]

This all raises some interesting issues. About a year ago I made a new will and decided to leave a bunch of money when I croak to the University of Wisconsin. In talking with them, they made it very clear I should leave the money to the University of Wisconsin Foundation, not the university itself. If the university receives an inheritance, the money goes into the state general fund; if the foundation gets it, then the foundation doles it out to the university later. I think we're seeing a similar situation here with Point Lobos.

There are 3 different entities involved here: The California Department of Parks and Recreation, the California State Parks Foundation, and the Point Lobos Foundation. If you look carefully, you will find a web page for Point Lobos operated by State Parks: Point Lobos SNR. That page will refer you to the page operated by the Point Lobos Foundation if you want any real information. My wife and I get the newsletter from the CA State Parks Foundation every month, because we contribute to them. Reading that, you quickly realize it is a separate entity from State Parks. They are tightly joined at the hip, though, and I'm sure CPR has effective control over the foundation. Likewise, I'd be shocked to hear that the Point Lobos Foundation has real political independence from the CPR management at Point Lobos. Legally, though, it's a separate entity and money you bequeath to it will not find its way into the state general fund so that it can be used, for example, on more feasibility studies on Jerry Brown's bullet train.

 

[griffon]

Pic of the new rules and rates courtesy Monterey sea otter club


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Hmm not sure why that's not showing up. Post link
https://www.facebook.com/groups/MontereyBaySeaOtters/permalink/10152533240211943/

 

[eelnoraa]

100% increase for diver fee, padding board and kayak. And 500% increase for boat luanch. Great job Lobo

 

[TSandM]

That's crazy. You can almost do a day of boat diving for what it costs you to get into the park! I understand that divers use water (which probably most hikers and photographers don't) and that there is maintenance to the boat ramp (which hikers don't need) but this seems like a ridiculous overcharge. It would definitely impact my decision to make a 14 hour road trip to Monterey again.