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CPW details refund options for Keep Colorado Wild Pass

Aspen Times staff report

With Coloradans about to see a $29 Keep Colorado Wild Pass added to their annual vehicle registration through the DMV, Colorado Parks and Wildlife has finalized a refund policy for in-state residents who purchase or have purchased a Keep Colorado Wild Pass before their next vehicle registration.

According to CPW, the new annual pass will give Coloradans access to all state parks through their vehicle registrations. However, because vehicle registrations happen throughout the year, there will be some people who will have overlapping annual passes.

To address this, CPW has approved refund options that will cover the time between when a current annual pass expires and when a vehicle registration is due.



For annual passes, the refunded amount will be based on a flat pro-rated refund structure. The pro-rated amount will be based on the price of the original pass, divided by 12 months and rounded up to the nearest dollar.

The pro-rated amount per month will range between $3-$10, depending on the originally purchased pass type for that vehicle.




The refund amount is based on the number of remaining months with no refund for passes that had been used for nine months or more. Residents will have 60 days after buying a Keep Colorado Wild Pass to file for a refund.

Qualifying, tax-exempt military plates will receive the Keep Colorado Wild Pass free of charge during the registration process.

All currently free and reduced-price CPW passes — Blue Spruce, Independence, Columbine and Centennial — will continue to be available. 

Annual-pass refunds also may be requested through an online platform managed by CPW, which will require creating or updating an account in the agency’s integrated purchasing system.

Customers will then be refunded to a card on file in the system. All other pass refunds will be paid in the form of a CPW Shop gift certificate or a check if purchased at a park, office, or agent.

Because checks could take up to 90 days for customers to receive, a CPW Shop gift certificate could be a more desirable option for some customers. 

These refund programs will only be available for the first two calendar years after the Keep Colorado Wild Pass implementation, which will cover all gaps and overlaps that could potentially exist before all noncommercial Colorado-plated vehicles have the option to purchase the Keep Colorado Wild Pass. 

For more, go to CPW.info/KeepColoradoWild or CPW.info/KeepColoradoWildPassSpanish.