Thread: Park Pass

I got mine yesterday! Thanks!

Originally Posted by Shannon

Speaking of which, I have TWO coupons from our State Park Pass renewal that I need to give away to a couple deserving Wild Texans. Justin and I won't have time to use all four of ours before they expire (ours expire in September 2008) so we're giving away two. I do not think you need to have a State Park Pass for the coupons to be accepted.

I guess this depends on where you are camping. Last weekend a friend and I went to Village Creek SP for a 3 day camping trip. Since my Parks Pass card expires this month (04-2008) I decided to renew my card once we got down there. This usually gets you off to a good start with the Park Rangers. I spent the $60 for my new Parks Pass when we got to Village Creek but was then told that I could not use my coupon since I did not bring last year's card. She said that the coupon must be used with the card it came with. She also told me that she would not accept the coupon because "How am I supposed to know how you got a hold of that coupon? You could have gotten it anywhere!". I couldn't believe that after I just spent $60 with them the Park Ranger was accusing me of being a liar and/or thief! Like I would spend $60 and then try & rip them off of half a night's camping fees. :mad:

Needless to say we turned around and walked right out and headed up to Martin Dies, Jr. SP. It is a beautiful park, right on the lake, and the people there couldn't be nicer. They happily accepted my coupon for the first night and couldn't believe the treatment we received at Village Creek. I passed along a long email to the TXPWD web site letting them know about my experience and that I will never spend so much as a penny I found on the ground at Village Creek SP until that Ranger is gone.

BTW, I checked the coupon and nowhere does it say it can only be used with the Parks Pass card issued with them. I pointed this out to the Ranger but she flat out said that she didn't care.

Not a photocopy at all. In fact I still had the original paper mailed to me with two of the coupons attached to it. I did receive a reply to the extended detailed email I sent to TX Parks & Wildlife thanking me for letting them know about my experience and assuring me that my message would be forwarded to the appropriate personnel. I'll let you know if I receive any further response.

Such a shame, too, because we went back to Village Creek SP to hike the trails and swim in the creek on Sunday and it is a beautiful park. Seems to me they could use the money there since they are still cleaning up from Hurricane Rita three years ago. This a picture of the entrance to Village Creek SP:

I spoke a little earlier today with Justin Rhodes, the SE Regional Director for the Texas State Parks. He was forwarded my letter from Austin and called both Village Creek SP and Martin Dies, Jr. SP to verify what I wrote about in my letter, which both parks did. He told me that the Park Superintendent was gone that day and the Park Ranger made the decision not to honor the coupon on her own. Technically there is a new policy in place where the coupon is supposed to be used only in conjunction with your Parks Pass but he told me that there is no way I should have been treated like that moments after spending $60 on a new card. Customer service far outweighs concerns over a half-price night of camping. He had to ask me again "This really happened after you bought your Parks Pass?" because he could hardly believe it himself. He asked me if he had my permission to use my letter in an upcoming training seminar he was holding as an example of what not to do and how not using a little common sense judgment can result in upset patrons. I told him he could use my letter, name, and anything else he wanted or needed to.

Anyway, we spoke for about ten minutes and he told me I was welcome to call him on his direct line anytime I needed to. So I am pretty happy over this outcome and assured him the weekend actually ended up just fine and that I'll still be staying at Parks all over Texas, including the Star Party weekend at Copper Breaks later this month (I'm going to be taking my last 50% off coupon--they best not give me any trouble :laugh.

Oh, I don't expect any problems at Copper Breaks. I bought my first Parks Pass there last April and they were so grateful they gave us one of our camping nights free. Really nice people there and it is a jewel of a park.

We stopped at Copper Breaks on a western trip a few years back, it was a nice park (but no shade) but they were viewing the stars at night. It is an isolated park so its great for clean sky.

From Copper went to Palo Duro then more.

I got mine yesterday and it was only a month too, to the day.