Washington State Parks....Part 2

Yes, the list is long, but I think the impact of these decisions is better seen on a map, so here you go:


View Affected Washington State Parks in a larger map

And, so you can see exactly which parks will remain funded, here is that map:


View Non-Affected Washington State Parks in a larger map

Now, I haven't been to many of the parks on the list that will remain open. I'm sure people out there that have great memories of these parks and I may find myself there some day as well. All I can go on is my experiences and those of my family/friends.

A few things that I noticed when I was making the map above. First, look at how many of the parks are islands. I wonder how many of those are really accessible from the average citizen. Second, there are a few parks that aren't on the map because they didn't come up on Google Maps (i.e. Centennial Trail, Columbia Hills, Doug's Beach just to name a few). I'm sure people visit those locations, but the Internet is a great thing. People are always willing to tell anyone that will listen about their experiences and especially if it involves a picture. All I am saying is that if no one in the Internet world saw fit to post anything about these parks, are they really that important? I sure don't.

Lastly (here comes the conspiracy theorist in me - look out your windows for black helicopters flying around), I think there are partisan politics here. Not Republican/Democrat, but East vs. West. Look at the map and tell me it isn't disproportionally littered with parks on the westside. Granted, something can be said about the spread of our population on the west side, but I think the allocation of Park money is erroneous. That's my dos centavos.