Keep Colorado Wild Pass

Why can't it be both? jess seyin. lol All kidden aside that is pretty crappy

That sucks. I lucked out since both my wife's car and mine expire same month as our pass.

Running into same issue here. I suppose it'll only be a problem for this year. It would be perfect if you could pay a "gap" fee, say a prorated amount to cover the gap. But that seems like it'd be too difficult to implement for an issue that won't be around after this year. Can you pay your vehicle registration early I wonder? And if so, how early?
Matt

Well, it gets better. My refund will be pro-rated so I'll get 10 months worth back, or $66.66. This means I will pay $13 and change for the 2 "gap" months. So while Joey Slapd*ck who has never purchased an annual pass will pay $29 for the year, I will end up paying $42.

Matt: the DMV website tells me my vehicle is not yet eligible for renewal.

Re: the prorated fee? I suppose that is essentially what we are doing with the refund, but a) sucks that we have to pay the full amount then apply for a refund and b) it's essentially $6.66 per month, so if your gap is 4 months, you are basically paying twice the amount for the Keep Colorado Wild pass.

This just has the feel of something that was not thought out before implemented. Not going to start on how the already crowded parks are going to be packed going forward.

The problem will go away next year, but you are right, this was not thought out very well. I bet you will now have lots of cars without a pass going to the parks and taking a chance that they will not be ticketed because you no longer need a window sticker to enter the parks. The price of a window sticker for all eligible vehicles would save thousands of hours looking up and writting summons.

My pass is good through June & tags just expired. I went ahead and paid for it. Hadn't considered there might be a refund option for my 4 months of double pay... I'll have to check into that.

Hey biskits - Not sure what you are crying about but I am ecstatic to be able to buy a parks pass for $29 instead of the $70 (old guy price) that I used to pay. And your math and assumptions are incorrect. I just went through the process and it is fairly quick and painless. Your current pass is good through the last day of March. On April 1st, go online and purchase your new pass and use a credit card. Your refund will come back quicker. Then in May, renew your license plates and purchase your keep Co wild pass. When you have your new registration, go to cpw shop website and link your new pass to your account and apply for your refund. Takes about 5 minutes. You will be charged for one month of use and that number is rounded up so your cost should be $6. My refund was issued in less than 10 days and was applied to my credit card. And your new pass will be good until May of 2024.

May also be worth looking at how early you can renew your plates, could shave it down to one month of a parks pass gap...

Admittedly I have no idea if you are someone that visits a state park 10x a month, or once.

I watched a lot of the roundtable they hosted to explain a lot of this program and answer questions. Overall I do think it's a good program as it gets more $ for the parks.. But nothing new is without its kinks. This question did come up in the meeting. They said this was the best way they could handle the situation.

My parks pass expires in May and and my vehicle plates expired in January. I registered my vehicle in January and got the new parks pass for $29 and was not eligible for a refund for the remaining time left on the pass. Turns out that if you had the pass for 9 months or more than no prorated refund will be given.
I'm good with that but having trouble linking my registration with cpw.

Jighead - If you google search " how to link the keep Colorado wild pass " you will find some tutorials with step by step instructions. There is also a phone number to call that will help you.

Renewed my registration on May 5 (a Friday). Got my pro-rated refund on May 9 (following Tuesday). So props to CPW and apologies for jumping the gun on timely refunds.

Bonus: I asked for a refund on the wrong pass in the CPWshop system. Someone from CPW called me abut 5 minutes later to clarify and remedy my mistake.

I was able to link my KCW pass to my CPW shop account with no issues. However, a few people I know that only have the KCW pass are under the impression that parks have a plate reader and they are good to drive into parks with no visible proof of a pass.

I just asked the ranger at the Boyd entrance how it will work once I register my truck. I was hoping the first time you show up at a state park they would check registration and issue a sticker so you can drive in the left entrance and just get waved in but they said that is not the case. She said you will have to drive in the right lane and show your registration every time. She said the rangers have all been complaining that this will create massive lines and frustration but she doesn't think they will start issuing stickers until next year. This is such an oversight and so easily fixed.

She also said that if you enter when gate attendants are not present that rangers will be able to tell when scanning your license plate if you opted in for the pass or not. They don't have any system in place for doing this as you enter though.

I just bought the annual pass and was going to eat the difference, don't have a problem giving money to CPW.. they are going to take a big hit this year from the cut in hunting licenses. Deer/elk/pronghorn mortality over the winter was really bad and they had to cut down on the number of hunting licenses..

Now what I'm wondering is what impact this is going to have on the parks. After the last couple of years when everything outdoors got massive increases in traffic, selling more cheap CPW permits to lots of cars, seems like it will keep those numbers up.. interesting times.

"the rangers have all been complaining that this will create massive lines and frustration but she doesn't think they will start issuing stickers until next year. This is such an oversight and so easily fixed."

LMFAO...Stevie Wonder saw this coming. This is typical Californified crap. If they would have just dropped the price of the parks pass, the sticker would still exist, you could still opt in or out, and the rangers would have more time to do more important stuff than scanning license plates.

What an absolute joke of an idea this was! Makes you wonder if CPW has the carbon copy classmate of the Bud Lite "marketer" running the place. LOL

Well, there seems to be some controversy here. I asked the lady at Chatfield if I had to get in the right lane to enter with my KCW pass, and she told me no. That rangers will check license plates, which when the park is full, will be a lot of checking.

I have heard the same at Chatfield. If they are gonna write you a ticket they have to run your registration anyway so If I were you at Boyd I’d blow right on by in the left lane.

At Boyd you can use the left lane and just hold up your registration card so they can see the cpw emblem. I see people do this all the time.

Maybe the 2 gate attendants were new. I will definitely go left lane instead of wait in line. Hopefully the CPW symbol is easy to see.

I just used my registration renewal notice from the county and got into the state park no problem. I spent $68 to go to the new Super Mario movie with 2 kids + 2 adults + snacks 1 time. This $29 pass is awesome valid for 1 year!

"I was hoping the first time you show up at a state park they would check registration and issue a sticker so you can drive in the left entrance and just get waved in but they said that is not the case."

What makes this extra stupid is that the standard parks pass is printed out on the same green tear proof plastic/paper that our licenses are printed on. They just give you a clear sticker to put it in your windshield. KCW pass is listed on your CPWShop account, so why not let you get that printed at any freaking retail outlet and tape it to your windshield yourself?

BTW, Chatfield's Wadsworth entrance was a sh*t show. Pulled up to the left turn to enter the park, but had to wait for 2 green arrows to cross Wadsworth. This was in the LEFT, "I have a pass" lane. Left lane was barely moving. One car length ever 5 minutes. After I crossed Wads, I looked over and saw the traffic start stacking up all the way to Deer Creek Road. I know it's Labor Day weekend, but this does not bode well for anyone wondering about the impact of KCW on crowds. No idea why the left lane was moving so slow.