Letter from Roger Williams
User fees (June 2000) – July 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine
Toll Gates on the Front Range
Editors:
About those public-land user fees:
Brainard Lake in Indian Peaks Wilderness, Arapahoe/Roosevelt National Forest near Ward, also charges admission, or did a few years ago when I went up there with a friend and was surprised to encounter a toll gate.
It was the first time I’d encountered a user fee for a national forest other than those “fee area” campsites. The National Park Serive is expanding them too; Wild Basin, part of Rocky Mountain National Park but with its own entrance, has reputedly put in a toll gate (they call them “entrance stations”). Looks like a toll booth to me. Get to the ones out of Estes Park before 7 a.m., and they’re free.
Roger Williams Boulder
