I would have called the tip line and reported the situation. Sounds like illegal parking to me.

Same thing happens at Squantz Pond State Park in the spring. They refuse to open the upper gate so the hikers, dog walkers, beach goers, etc. can park in the fields where they are supposed to park. Instead, the only gate open is to the boat ramp so anyone using the state park or even hiking into Pootatuck State Forest has to park at the boat ramp lot which fills it up and there is no place to park a trailer rig effectively closing the boat ramp.
This Saturday at around 7am I went to Squantz with my boat and the lower lot was locked already. The normal sequence is to lock the lower lot at 8am, then immediately the park personnel go to the upper gate where the pay booth is located and open that gate so the traffic has to go by the gate and pay. Not on this past Saturday. When the lower gate was locked I went to the upper gate and it was locked with no one around. Finally a park truck drove by and I stopped it and had him open the upper gate so I could get in. I have a Charter Oak pass so paying is not an issue.
Squantz is so poorly run. The last manager is in jail for stealing state funds and now we either have no one running the show or it is someone even worse at community relations than the other guy.
Encon and the parks people are all in the same DEEP Bureau, maybe you guys can get together and work this out.

That sucks, I would have lost it. Did the bass Gods make up for it at the backup lake?

Ironically,

This has also happened to me after driving halfway across the state @ Mudge about 15 years ago. All out of state.