>>604860>- you have to pay in order to use national parksSome of them charge a small fee, usually done because of the fragility of the environment. You can get a huge fine for picking alpine flowers or leaving the path in many places because after the flowers are picked, the soil just blows right off the mountain and it takes decades for more to build up.
>- to paddle certain rivers you need to join a waiting list or enter a raffleYes; some rivers control the amount of people that are allowed to access them for safety reasons.
>- outdoor police fines you for smoking weedSmoking weed is generally illegal in the US and on top of that some places have fire bans so strict that any smoking is strictly forbidden.
>or camping outside "designated spots"In some places this is true because, as I mentioned above, many national parks are extremely fragile, and in others it's true because people are stupid ("it'll be fine if I leave the food out; there are no bears around") and/or disrespectful ("I don't want to pack my garbage out so I'll just stuff it under this bush and nobody will ever know") and as such end up putting the wildlife at risk and shitting things up for everyone.
However, all of the things you mentioned (except for smoking weed which is, again, generally quite illegal in the US) are exceptions rather than the rule and usually limited to places annually flooded with people who don't know their ass from their elbow when it comes to camping.
