Sometimes when we get frustrated we need to vent. As a person who tries to enjoy the outdoors, going into retirement, I watch my money. I was OK with the $30 Discovery Pass, I was OK with the $30 Forest Service pass. I started to grumble at the $40 national parks fee for Mount St. Helens or Rainier, but then, the Ridgefield reserve hit me with $20 for a pass. But the one that really got me fuming was that to park in the same lots I had used my Forest Service pass for — they wanted $25 for a sno-park permit in the winter. It obviously costs many hundreds of thousands to plow a few lots a few times.
The passes don’t end here. I have a huge two-drawer file cabinet in my vehicle to carry them all and a large instruction manual to help decipher which permit is needed. I can’t help but wonder if the state and city are going to impose new ones on us. You want to leave your home for the day, that will be $40 for a pass, or we go for a drive along river, that’s $40 for a viewing pass.
Here’s an idea, how about combining them? Or maybe they just enjoy seeing us banging our heads on the hood of our cars wondering which pass is needed where.
