I would agree, except for the parks our parks are extremely nice. The Commonwealth of Virginia State Parks are great!

I went camping last year at Smith Mountain lake in Virginia with my wife. We had a great time. I went to the ranger station on the way out and said to one of the rangers:

"I have to tell you, I'm an anarchist and I am so impressed with how nice everything is here. It's clean. Everything works. The people are friendly. It's just great!"

He laughed and said, "You're my kind of people. Come back again."

One of the things I was most impressed about was the grounds maintenance was not done by contractors. Rangers or staff that looked like rangers wore uniforms and were cutting grass, emptying trash cans, pruning, cutting dead trees, and everything.

It was great.

We also had to pay to use the park but it wasn't too expensive which meant that the Commonwealth of Virginia wasn't blindly subsidizing some money hole. The people who enjoyed it paid for it. The park was packed! You had to get reservations for your camping spot. Also the park staff were mindful that we were paying customers so the treatment was respectful. They knew where their money came from.

Finally, the ranger I spoke with asked me to fill out the online survey because the park director needed to know that his team was doing a good job. I filled it out for him and his team.

I'm looking forward to returning to the park this year, again.