$45 For A Picnic?

Today I thought it would be fun to go for a drive up American Fork Canyon and have a picnic dinner with my mom. It was a beautiful sunny day and a nice drive. The canyon was pretty crowded but my mom kept promising if we headed all the way up to Granite Flats it would be less crowded. We got to the top and pulled into a pretty empty campground. All we needed was a picnic table and we'd be good to go.

We found a group site picnic area that had one of those low gates that was locked and a sign that said "group site $45." There was nobody there and we weren't a group so we figured we'd use a table for our little picnic and be on our way.

It was a beautiful place with tall pine trees surrounded by granite mountains that still had patches of snow on them. There was a little stream running through and plenty of shade. The kids ran along the stream for a little bit before dinner. Cameron came back distraught because she found a lot of trash in the water downstream. So after a quick dinner Ryan gave the kids a grocery bag and they waded through the water and picked up trash.

We were all sitting by the stream enjoying the evening as the temperature got cooler when a man walked up (obviously the campground host) and said, "did you know that it costs $45 to have a picnic here?" He was holding a money pouch in his hand. There was a long pause and then Ryan said, "we saw the sign but we thought it was for group reservations." The man was pretty firm when he said, "nope. It's for anyone who wants to have a picnic here, $45." He looked like he was ready for us to hand him the money right then. So Ryan said, "well, we didn't know. Can we just give you $10 and call it good?" In a booming voice the man says, "Are you trying to bribe me?" We froze again. It was a stressful situation.

Then my mom says, "you know, the kids just spent the last 20 min. picking up trash out of the river. Would that work?" He turned to her with a questionable expression on his face and she said, "do you want to see the bag?" He said yes, so Dallin walked up and showed him the grocery bag full of wet trash. In an instant the man's whole expression changed. He offered to throw the bag away for Dallin and we took that as our cue to leave quickly before he brought up the $45 again. As I stood up to leave he says, "you know I hate to kick you out of here but...". I said it was no big deal since we were about to leave anyway. I talked a little bit more with him as we walked out to show there were no hard feelings and make sure he still wasn't going to demand any money. Then when I got in the car I turned around and thanked Dallin and Cameron for saving us $45.