La Prele 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 10 of the next 10 nights read 16:40 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
La Prele Guard Station is located south of Douglas, Wyoming in Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest. It was originally built as a remote ranger station in 1936 by the Civilian Conservation Corps and was converted into a work center when the La Prele Ranger District was discontinued in 1956. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. Today, it provides a unique lodging experience and delightful spot for guests seeking recreation and relaxation in south central Wyoming. Keep reading
The guard station is open from late May or early June through late October each year and is accessible by car except after snow events at the beginning and end of the season. Weather and road closures may impact opening and closure dates. Many modern conveniences are provided, but guests will need to bring a few of their own supplies to make their stay comfortable. We try to keep a supply of firewood available to guests but there is no guarantee. The site now has limited propane lighting. Please note that due to the historic nature of the facility, pets, candles or other flame producing items are not permitted in the cabin.
Recreation
Opportunities for hiking, fishing, rock climbing, mountain biking, and hunting can be found within the vicinity. OHV riders can access trails in the area as well. The trailhead for the Twin Peaks OHV trail is three miles north of La Prele Guard Station and provides great access for elk and deer hunters. The trail meanders through public land to the base of Twin Peaks. From the top of the peaks, views of the Laramie Mountains dominate the landscape. Anglers will enjoy fly fishing for a variety of trout in La Prele Creek and its many beaver ponds, some within walking distance from the cabin. Please respect the private land mixed in with public lands along the road and creek.
Facilities
The historic log structure has two bedrooms equipped with beds and mattresses that can accommodate up to six people. The kitchen offers a refrigerator, stove, table with chairs, basic cooking and eating utensils, and cookware. The cabin has indoor plumbing which gives guests access to running water, a shower, and a flush toilet. A propane water heater provides hot water. The cabin now has electricity. The fireplace is usually adequate for heating the guard station during the summer season. No other flame producing sources are allowed inside the cabin, including candles. A campfire ring and picnic table are just outside. Guests need to provide their own food, sleeping bags, pillows, towels, dish and bath soap, matches, and first aid kit. It is recommended that you bring drinking water. Battery operated lanterns are provided. We will now be offering trash collection at this site. Please limit food waste, and take all large items with you at check out. For larger parties, Campbell Creek Campground, about 1/2 mile east of the La Prele Guard Station, has six campsites that can accommodate tents, campers and trailers up to 22 feet. Campsite #1 can accommodate a longer trailer of 30 feet. No Vehicle or ORV operation is allowed outside of the gravel parking area. RV's, campers, or tents are NOT allowed on the property. Guests travelling through in an RV or camper, need to get prior approval from the Douglas Ranger District Recreational Specialist before arrival. ORV reminder: Forest Service Trails require Wyoming ORV sticker and be less that 50" in width. Forest Service Roads require either Wyoming ORV sticker or state license plate. County & State Roads require state license plate - including ORV's.
Natural Features
The guard station sits in a grassy clearing surrounded by a mixed conifer forest at an elevation of 7,800 feet. Mountains define the landscape and La Prele Creek flows nearby. Wildlife viewing is abundant near the cabin, including elk and deer. Migratory birds, squirrels and an occasional black bear or moose find habitat in the forest as well.
Nearby Attractions
Twin Peaks Trail Little Medicine Falls Upper Deer Creek Trail Fishing and Hunting Rock Climbing on State Trust Land
What the agency tells you
Converse County Road and Bridge are repaving Cold Springs Highway 91, so be prepared for delays. Access to the guard station is by combination lock, and the combination is included with the confirmation letter at the bottom. If there are any questions, please call (307) 358-4690.
Contact the Douglas Ranger District office prior to arriving at the cabin to check on any restrictions or conditions, such as fire or road closures, weather, or storms that may affect the quality of your visit.
Pets and emotional support animals, of all sizes, are not allowed at this facility.
Everything else this campground posts · 10
Horse Information - There is a maximum of 6 horses allowed as the corral is small. Use weed free hay, and all manure must be cleaned up and packed out upon departure. There is a water hydrant located on the exterior of the cabin but must be transported to the corral. Buckets are available on request. Horses are not permitted on the grounds outside of the corral. There is an opening in the perimeter fence near the corral.
Rental agreement is for the main cabin only, use of the other buildings on the grounds is not permitted under any circumstance.
The cabin is a non-smoking facility (including vaping).
Please clean cabin upon departure.
In addition to regular departure cleaning, guests are required to clean and disinfect highly touched surfaces upon arrival and departure. If guests exhibit Covid symptoms while staying at the cabin please report to the local Ranger District so the facility can be completely disinfected.
Make sure cabin is locked upon departure and the key is in the lockbox.
Trash collection is now available at this facility. Please ensure all trash is removed from cabin and put in outdoor bin prior to departure. Feel free to continue to 'Pack it in, Pack it out'.
Learn more about Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests
Don't Move Firewood: Prevent the spread of tree-killing organisms by obtaining firewood at or near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
Candles are prohibited. Lanterns and flame producing items are allowed only if the fuel source can be easily switched off.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 20 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…access to running water, a shower, and a flush toilet. A propane water heater provides hot water. The…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- Shower/Bath Type states a shower on all 1 of this campground's campsite records
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “It is recommended that you bring drinking water.”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Stay limit
- 10 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 181st darkest of 248 in WY
- Bortle 2
Full this Saturdayread 16:40 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:40 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 16:40 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 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 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| LA PRELE | 001 | cabin nonelectric | 20 ft | 304 ftLa Prele Creek | $100 |
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
Campbell Creek CampgroundMedicine Bow National Forest · 0.2 mi
Curtis Gulch CampgroundMedicine Bow National Forest · 11 mi
Friend Park CampgroundMedicine Bow National Forest · 22 mi
Esterbrook CampgroundMedicine Bow National Forest · 26 mi
Rim CampgroundCasper Field Office · 27 mi
Lodgepole CampgroundCasper Field Office · 27 miFrom Douglas (37 miles)
From I25 Exit 140, turn right onto S Riverbend Dr. Turn right onto WY-94 (Esterbrook Road) and right on WY-91 (Cold Springs Road). In 3 miles, turn left on WY-91 (Cold Springs Road). Continue on CR 24 (Cold Springs Road) for 33.8 miles.
From I25 Exit 146, East on WY-96. In 3.1 miles, turn right on WY-91 (Cold Springs Road). Continue on CR 24 (Cold Springs Road) for 33.8 miles.
From Laramie (105 miles)
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Esterbrook, WY
Typical weather
Typical October night 23°F, day 54°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 1°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
La Prele 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 Prele Guard Station, Medicine Bow National Forest, Wyoming
Dear Harriet M. Hageman, I’m a constituent in Wyoming, at-large. I tried to camp at La Prele Guard Station, Medicine Bow National Forest, Wyoming, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at La Prele Guard Station are reservable, 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. La Prele Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run La Prele 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 Prele Guard Station (Medicine Bow 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 Prele Guard Station, Medicine Bow National Forest, Wyoming
Dear Cynthia M. Lummis, I’m a constituent in Wyoming. I tried to camp at La Prele Guard Station, Medicine Bow National Forest, Wyoming, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at La Prele Guard Station are reservable, 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. La Prele Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run La Prele 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 Prele Guard Station (Medicine Bow 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 Prele Guard Station, Medicine Bow National Forest, Wyoming
Dear John Barrasso, I’m a constituent in Wyoming. I tried to camp at La Prele Guard Station, Medicine Bow National Forest, Wyoming, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at La Prele Guard Station are reservable, 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 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. La Prele Guard Station keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run La Prele 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 Prele Guard Station (Medicine Bow National Forest, Wyoming) via campanac.com