Cottonwood (Big Bend, TX)
2Heads uppark alerts
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 16:26 UTC
- A night
- $16When it reopens, per site
- Sites
- 31In the agency’s record
- Season
- November 1 – April 30Open November 1 through April 30, across the new year
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Cottonwood Campground is a quiet desert oasis in the southwestern corner of Big Bend National Park. Conveniently located between the Castolon Historic District, the scenic Santa Elena Canyon and the tail end of the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive, this small, 30-site campground is one of the least-known and quiet campgrounds in the park. There is one group campsite and 30 individual sites. This is a remote campground in a remote park. It is dry camping, no hook-ups, and no generators are permitted. There is not a fill or dump station, please come prepared. Keep reading
Cottonwood gets its name from the cottonwood trees that surround and provide shade for the facility nearby the Rio Grande. A general store and visitor center -- a converted former military outpost -- are also nearby. The campground is at an elevation of 1,900 ft. (580 m). It is relatively cool in the peak seasons of fall and winter due to cold air sinking into the lower elevations. In the spring and summer, this campground is very hot, with temperatures normally exceeding 100° F (38° C) from mid-March through August.
Recreation
Particularly popular with bird watchers, Cottonwood Campground is a haven for those wishing to study the abundant bird life in Big Bend while also escaping the more crowded areas in the park. Because of its diverse ecosystems and plant life, the park provides habitats for many rare and unique birds , including the Mexican mallard, Lucifer hummingbird, Mexican jay, black-capped and gray vireos, and Varied Bunting. Hiking trails are located around the campground.
Facilities
The campground has pit (vault) toilets, potable water, picnic tables, bear boxes, and grills. There are no hook-ups or fill and dump stations, and the use of generators is not allowed. The group campsite is a walk-in, tent-only site; no RVs or trailers are allowed. Vehicle parking is restricted to an adjacent parking area, a short walk from the campsite itself. The individual sites are all similar. Each site has a bear box, picnic table, and raised grill. All have dirt/gravel parking spaces and most are well-shaded with some afternoon/evening sun. The individual sites are on a 2-week reservation window, which means you can make the reservation no more than 2 weeks in advance of your arrival.
Natural Features
The national park is named for a curve in the Rio Grande called the "big bend." For 1,250 miles (2011 km), the river is an International Boundary between the United States and Mexico. Due to its proximity to water, many species of birds are in the Cottonwood area, including nesting migratory birds. Santa Elena Canyon is a beautiful river canyon that can be seen from the campground area.
Nearby Attractions
Santa Elena Canyon, Castolon Historic District, and Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive are near the campground.
What the agency tells you
Do not reserve campsites that you are not planning to stay in. A camper arriving the day AFTER the reservation begins is considered a No Show. A No Show may result in a cancellation of your ENTIRE reservation. Contact the park at 432-477-2251 if you are late or will not be arriving until the day after your reservation starts.
Check-in. You may occupy your campsite anytime after 1:00 p.m.. Your site will be marked. There is no official check-in. procedure.
Generators are not allowed in Cottonwood campground. Idling a vehicle to provide power is also prohibited.
Everything else this campground posts · 8
No Hookups or Dump Station. There are no electricity, water or sewer hookups. There is no fill/dump station available at this campground.
Group Campsite is Tent Only. The group site is for tents only. RVs and trailers are NOT allowed.
Campfires. No wood or ground fires are permitted in Big Bend. Charcoal may be used in the raised grills provided at each site.
Pets. Pets are allowed in each campsite, although they must be leashed and restrained at all times. Pets are not allowed on trails or in buildings.
Food Lockers/Wildlife. Javelinas, bobcats and bears frequent the area. All food must be kept in the food storage lockers or approved containers or in a hard-sided vehicle. Dispose of trash n the animal-proof dumpsters provided. Do not leave coolers or food boxes unattended at any time.
Are you still camping? If you leave your site during the day, please leave something at the site so we know you are not checking out early. A tent, camp chair, stove, book, etc. Something of little value but that indicates you plan to return.
Hammocks. No hammocks or other devices may be attached/tied to trees or any other natural features or objects.
Border Crossing. There is only one authorized border crossing within Big Bend National Park, located at Rio Grande Village. Crossing the border in an unauthorized location is illegal.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 31 · 1 tent-only, 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 40 ft
- Accessible sites
- 2
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Not allowed
- Shade
- 19 of 30 sites
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets - year round
- Drinking water
- Yes
- Dump station
- Yes
- Store
- Nearby
- Bear boxes
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Birding
- Canoeing
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic Sites
- Picnic Tables
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 6th darkest of 154 in TX
- Bortle 1
Nothing to book until it reopensread 16:26 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
OpenBookedClosed
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 16
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 · 4
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Cottonwood (Big Bend, TX) closed this Friday and Saturday night. The National Park Service has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 60 miles · 3
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Chisos Basin Campground (Big Bend, TX)Big Bend National Park · 16 mi · 60 sites
- Rio Grande Village Group Campground (Big Bend, TX)Big Bend National Park · 34 mi · 4 sites
- Rio Grande Village (Big Bend, TX)Big Bend National Park · 34 mi · 98 sites
recreation.gov availability, read 16:26 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
31 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 3 mapped sitesAll 31 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 3 of the 31 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 29 of the 31 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| Cottonwood (TX) | 001 | type not stated | 20 ft | Pit Toilets listed | ||||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 002 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | Pit Toilets listed | $16 | |||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 003 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | Pit Toilets listed | $16 | |||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 004 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | Pit Toilets listed | $16 | |||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 005 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | Pit Toilets listed | $16 | |||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 006 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | Pit Toilets listed | $16 | |||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 007 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | Pit Toilets listed | $16 | |||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 008 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | Pit Toilets listed | $16 | |||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 009 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | Pit Toilets listed | $16 | |||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 010 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | Pit Toilets listed | $16 | |||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 011 | standard nonelectric | 29 ft | Pit Toilets listed | $16 | |||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 012 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | Pit Toilets listed | $16 | |||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 013 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | Pit Toilets listed | $16 | |||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 014 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | Pit Toilets listed | $16 | |||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 015 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | Pit Toilets listed | $16 | |||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 016 | standard nonelectric | 29 ft | Pit Toilets listed | $16 | |||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 017 | standard nonelectric | 28 ft | Pit Toilets listed | $16 | |||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 018 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | Pit Toilets listed | $16 | |||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 019 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | Pit Toilets listed | $16 | |||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 020 | standard nonelectric | 23 ft | Pit Toilets listed | $16 | |||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 021 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | Pit Toilets listed | $16 | |||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 022 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | Pit Toilets listed | $16 | |||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 023 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | Pit Toilets listed | $16 | |||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 024 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | Pit Toilets listed | $16 | |||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 025 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | Pit Toilets listed | $16 | |||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 026 | standard nonelectric | 22 ft | Pit Toilets listed | $16 | |||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 027 ADA | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | yes | 144 ft | 361 ft | 98 ft | $16 |
| Cottonwood (TX) | 028 | type not stated | 28 ft | Pit Toilets listed | ||||
| Cottonwood (TX) | 029 ADA | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | yes | 144 ft | 246 ft | 49 ft | $16 |
| Cottonwood (TX) | 030 | standard nonelectric | 24 ft | Pit Toilets listed | $16 | |||
| Group Site A | A | group tent only area nonelectric | 681 ft | 1,041 ft | 423 ft | $60 |
25 of 31 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Chisos Basin Campground (Big Bend, TX)Big Bend National Park · 16 mi
Chisos Basin Group Campground (Big Bend, TX)Big Bend National Park · 16 mi
Big Bend Backcountry CampingBig Bend National Park · 23 mi
Rio Grande Village Group Campground (Big Bend, TX)Big Bend National Park · 34 mi
Rio Grande Village (Big Bend, TX)Big Bend National Park · 34 miFrom Interstate 10, take State Highway 385 south to Fort Stockton and into Marathon. From Marathon, drive 40 miles (64 km) south on State Highway 385 to the north entrance of Big Bend National Park. Drive straight for 26 miles (42 km) to Park Headquarters at Panther Junction. Turn right at the intersection and go 13 miles (21 km) west. Take a left at the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive and drive 23 miles (37 km) to Cottonwood Campground.
GPS Warning: GPS units may send you down Old Maverick Road, an unpaved, very rough road. Do not take Old Maverick Road unless you have a four wheel drive and high clearance vehicle.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Terlingua, TX
Typical weather
Typical November night 46°F, day 78°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical January night 36°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Junes are colder than the June line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Cottonwood (Big Bend, TX) is in Texas’s 23rd congressional district. Whoever holds it votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. See how its representative votes on public lands →
Our roster still carries Tony Gonzales for this district and the current federal record doesn’t list them as sitting, so we’re not naming a representative here until the two agree.