La Barge Guard Station
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 15 of the next 30 nights read 16:41 UTC
- Sites
- 21 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Historic La Barge Guard Station is located 87 miles north of Kemmerer, Wyoming in the Hams Fork Area of Bridger-Teton National Forest. The cabin is situated in beautiful La Barge Meadow, among vibrant summer wildflowers at the base of pine-covered Commissary Ridge. Constructed in 1933 by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the rustic cabin welcomes guests for sightseeing, hiking, fishing and more. Pets and horses are allowed at the cabin. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding are popular summer activities in the surrounding area. The Wagner Pass Trail begins behind the cabin, offering scenic hiking as it follows the Lander Cutoff Historical Trail. Snowmobiling and cross country skiing can be done right out the front door in winter. La Barge Creek offers pleasant trout fishing opportunities.
Facilities
The guard station is a basic, 1930s style CCC cabin with two rooms. It sleeps six people on three bunkbeds with mattresses. The cabin is available year-round. The cabin is equipped with a propane oven, refrigerator, lights and a wood stove. Water is not guaranteed and if water is on , i ndoor plumbing is still not available . A vault toilet is located behind the cabin. Some dishes, pots, pans and utensils are provided, but the presence of these items is not guaranteed. No electricity, linens or bedding are provided. In winter, no drinking water is available, so guests should bring plenty for drinking and cooking. Recommended items to bring include dish soap, dish towels, toilet paper, garbage bags and a flashlight. If firewood is on site, this is a courtesy but is not guarenteed . If available, please use only what you need. Always be prepared to collect wood locally or bring to site from local resources.
Natural Features
The cabin sits near La Barge Creek in a grassy meadow at about 8,500 feet in elevation. Pine trees dot the land around the cabin and cover the surrounding hillsides. Moose, elk, eagles and sandhill cranes are among the wildlife likely to be seen. An abundance of wildflowers color the landscape in summer. The Bridger-Teton National Forest offers more than 3.4 million acres of public land for outdoor recreation. With its pristine watersheds, abundant wildlife and immense wildlands, the forest comprises a large part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the largest intact ecosystem in the lower 48 states.
What the agency tells you
Enterance requires a combination which you will receive in an email after you complete your reservation on line.
Summer access is on gravel and dirt roads; high clearance vehicles are strongly recommended. OHV requires tthe Wyoming State Registration both summer and winter. Click here for more information Wyoming State Trails
Winter access is by snowmobile only on a 22-mile trail
Everything else this campground posts · 12
No water is available in winter months
Horses must be watered from the creek; do not fill stock tanks with water from cabin. Must have certified weed free hay.
Pets are allowed, clean up after them. NEVER leave them unattended. Do NOT allow them to harrasse wildlife.
Please bring garbage bags; this is a 'pack it in, pack it out' facility
NO bedding provided.
Please clean cabin before leaving; cleaning supplies are NOT provided other than a broom and mop.
No cell phone coverage available
No smoking allowed
Bears frequent the area; be aware of bear safety
Beware of poisonous chemicals used to control rodent population, Do not leave mouse traps set when you leave
Don't Move Firewood: Help prevent the spread of tree-killing pests in our national forests by obtaining firewood near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
Click here to learn more about the Bridger-Teton National Forest
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 2 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Not allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 2 of 2 campsite records
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- Shower/Bath Type states a shower on all 2 of this campground's campsite records
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…or bedding are provided. In winter, no drinking water is available, so guests should bring plenty for…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek, Meadow
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
Full this Saturdayread 16:41 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedClosed
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday, and on four midweek nights after it as well. read 16:41 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 13
What you actually pay
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 16:41 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
2 sites · the site map
All 2 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 1 of the 2 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| LABGS | CABIN | cabin nonelectric | 354 ft | $60 |
| Scan & Pay | S&P Site Type | type not stated |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Scaler Guard StationBridger National Forest · 8.6 mi
Snyder Guard Station (WY)Bridger National Forest · 8.7 miMiddle Piney Lake CampgroundBridger National Forest · 8.9 miHobble Creek CampgroundBridger National Forest · 9.4 mi
Cottonwood Group Picnic SiteBridger National Forest · 10 mi
Cottonwood Group CampsiteBridger National Forest · 10 miFrom Kemmerer, WY, follow US-189 north to the junction of La Barge Road, just south of the town of La Barge. Turn left on La Barge Road and travel 25 miles (the first 11 miles of this road are paved) to the forest boundary. Continue following La Barge Road/Forest Road 10138 for 14 more miles to the Tri Basin Divide/Forest Road 10072 junction and turn left. Drive 1/2-mile and turn left. La Barge Guard Station is at the end of the road.
From Afton, WY, follow US-89 south 14.5 miles to the Smith's Fork Road/Forest Road 10072 junction. Turn left at the junction and follow Smith's Fork Road for about 22 miles to the La Barge Guard Station road. Turn right. La Barge Guard Station is at the end of the road.
Winter access is by snowmobile only on a 22-mile trail.
The weather
the next four days
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Smoot, WY
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
La Barge Guard Station is in Wyoming’s at-large congressional district. Its representative, Harriet Hageman (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyHarriet M. HagemanU.S. Representative · Wyoming, at-large
- Your senator, on the same appropriationCynthia M. LummisU.S. Senator · Wyoming
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJohn BarrassoU.S. Senator · Wyoming
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at La Barge Guard Station, Bridger National Forest, Wyoming
Dear Harriet M. Hageman, I’m a constituent in Wyoming, at-large. I tried to camp at La Barge Guard Station, Bridger National Forest, Wyoming, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 1 of the 2 campsites the agency files at La Barge Guard Station, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. La Barge Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run La Barge Guard Station. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about La Barge Guard Station (Bridger National Forest, Wyoming) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at La Barge Guard Station, Bridger National Forest, Wyoming
Dear Cynthia M. Lummis, I’m a constituent in Wyoming. I tried to camp at La Barge Guard Station, Bridger National Forest, Wyoming, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 1 of the 2 campsites the agency files at La Barge Guard Station, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. La Barge Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run La Barge Guard Station. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about La Barge Guard Station (Bridger National Forest, Wyoming) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at La Barge Guard Station, Bridger National Forest, Wyoming
Dear John Barrasso, I’m a constituent in Wyoming. I tried to camp at La Barge Guard Station, Bridger National Forest, Wyoming, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 1 of the 2 campsites the agency files at La Barge Guard Station, and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. La Barge Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run La Barge Guard Station. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about La Barge Guard Station (Bridger National Forest, Wyoming) via campanac.com