SACRAMENTO, Cal. — You have found a perfect campsite in a California State Park. Wouldn’t it be great if you could own that site? Well, soon you can. 

Under a plan by the California Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR), a majority of the campsites in every state park will soon be available for purchase by private individuals. With approximately 15,000 campsites and alternative camping facilities under its jurisdiction and a directive from the Legislature to develop and implement a Revenue Generation Program for the California State Parks, the DPR will convert selected campsites to timeshare status beginning early next year.

According to Heather Randalski, spokesperson for the DPR, “The arithmetic is simple. We now rent sites for $5 to $80 per night with a yearly average occupancy rate of 58 percent. By selling the campsites that have near-100 percent occupancy, we can generate up to 17 times more revenue than we would otherwise get from daily campsite rental alone. At the same time, by removing the most desirable campsites from daily rental status, we can boost the occupancy rates for the less desirable sites.”

In addition, Randalski told Err Travel that the projections for annual maintenance fees alone will boost the revenue of the DPR more than 62 percent over current income. 

No information is yet available to the public as to the pricing structure of the converted timeshare campsites, however Err Travel has learned that campsites are expected to sell for between $32,000 and $1.6 million.