I have every other Friday off so the wife and I try to make out as much as we can. We love VA state parks but.... recently we spent the weekend at Lake Anna State park.
I was really kind of let down. Most of the parks are well mowed and kept up. Lake Anna was not so much. Our site had grass growing up past my ankles IN THE GRAVEL PAD. There were several sites that started off with one vehicle and maybe a couple and some kids. Then by Sat night, that same site have 4 cars, 10 people plus kids and were really rowdy. I mean vomit on the pavement rowdy.
The area around the beach was packed, every tree had a hammock on it, beach was packed and the lifeguard was having trouble controlling everyone, to the point people were swimming off of the dock. Bathroom was like a 95 truck stop bathroom. We walked a trail down to the beach area first thing in the morning, It was packed like that at 9AM and it only got worse.
In short, I think the park is over used and under staffed. The rangers I saw were working hard but not enough to cover everything going on.
In contrast we spent this past weekend we were at Powhatan State park and the experience was completely different. Lots of kids playing and riding bikes but by 10 PM it was quiet time. Grass cut, bathrooms cleaned 2 times a day.
I would think the state needs to allocate them some more funds.