Several changes will be coming to Chewacla State Park, and some have already been put in place.
The first change that is already in place is an increase of the entrance fee by one dollar, now making the fee $4 per patron.
This was done this past March and is part of a routine adjustment, according to Greg Lein, Alabama state parks director.
The reason for the increased entry fee is to cover the parks utilities, insurance and other administrative expenses, Lein said.
Chewacla is also increasing its other fees for camping and cabin usage, according to O’Dell Banks, park manager of Chewacla.
The campgrounds of Chewacla are having the next change by implementing an online reservation system for patrons to use.
“We hope that, in the late part of May or early June, we will be implementing a change in our reservation system,” Lein said. “It will allow our guests to make site-specific reservations through our website.”
Those interested in using the campground can access the site-specific reservation system through Chewacla’s website. This new process also helps to ensure groups are able to plan their campsites accordingly.
This online process of campsite reservations is already in place at other parks, according to Banks, and allows for patrons to easily plan their visit before their arrival.
“If you were going to go out to Chewacla and you and your friend wanted to camp there and wanted to camp side-by-side, you would be able to look at the available campsites and make a selection through that as to what site the two of you wanted to be at,” Lein said.
The park is also known for its geocaching program and mountain biking trails, which is under ongoing work to for improvement.
Chewacla was the recent host of a mountain biking summit.
Geocaching uses an app or a handheld GPS to guide visitors to the large number of caches Chewacla has to offer.
“It’s free to join and called Geocaching.com,” Banks said. “It will allow you to download the coordinates to all the different caches all over the world, and we have about 70 here inside the park.”
More changes have been discussed, which includes adding a new entrance building, renovating an old Civilian Conservation Corps building, expanding the campgrounds and adding more cabins to the campsites; but none of these projects have begun because of an absence of any firm sources of funding, according to Lein.
“We operate on a user-pay system,” Lein said. “We can’t talk about that too much, and I often tell people if they ask me or if they say, ‘Well, what can I do to help the state parks system?’ My response to that is go out and use it, and bring 10 of your friends. When you’re using your park system and you’re paying those [entrance] fees, you are truly helping the system.”
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