The Medicine Bow National Forest has installed an automated fee station at Tie City trailhead, providing visitors with a credit card payment option for the required day-use fee.

Tie City is a year-round trailhead, providing access to a system of both winter and summer trails. The day-use fee at Tie City is $5/vehicle/day. Onsite or online payment is accepted. Credit card, cash, or check payment is accepted onsite. Online payment is available through Recreation.gov. Annual day-use passes are also honored at the site.

For those choosing to pay their day-use fee onsite with credit card, instructions for use are located on the fee machine and a receipt will be provided to place on the vehicle dash.

Automated fee stations have also been installed at the Sugarloaf and Vedauwoo day-use areas for launch in mid-2024. A similar fee kiosk outside Steamboat Springs, Colo., at Fish Creek Falls was installed last year and has proven effective. Locations for additional automated fee stations are under consideration at recreation sites across the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests.

The USDA Forest Service recreation fee program is administered under the Federal Lands Recreation Act (REA) and helps to fund the Forest’s recreation program by allowing for the reinvestment of revenue into fee sites. REA authorizes the Forest to keep 95% of fees collected locally to stay at the Forest level. Fees go back to the Forest for expenses like trash services, toilet pumping, picnic tables, capital improvements, and staffing. 

Information on the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests and Thunder Basin National Grassland can be found on our website or on the unit’s Twitter and Facebook accounts. The Laramie District office can be reached at (307) 745-2300.