Cottonwood (CA)
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $34From, per site
- Sites
- 2214 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Cottonwood Springs Campground (5,700) is located on the southwest side of Frenchman Lake. The surrounding pine forest provides ample shade during summers' hot afternoons. The lake, recreation area and surrounding forest and rangeland offer a wide variety of recreational opportunities and adventures. Two group sites provide families and other groups the location to get together for you special outdoor experience. Hunting, fishing, boating, water sports and nature viewing are just some of the possibilities. Keep reading
Recreation
The nearby 1,580-acre Frenchman Lake provides ample opportunities for swimming, boating, water skiing, jet skiing and fishing. California sponsors two free fishing days every year, in April and September. There is also an accessible fishing trail within the campground. Public forest and range lands are open for you to visit. Plumas national Forest has an extensive road system for you to explore. Make sure you take a map, extra provisions dependable vehicle and plenty of fuel.
Facilities
Cottonwood Springs Campground has 20 single-family campsites available for both tent and RV camping. Need a location for your family or group get together? There are two reservation group sites here. Group site B can accommodate up to 25 guests and six vehicles and Group site D up to 50 guests and 12 vehicles. Lunker Point Boat Launch Facility is about two miles away. An RV dump station is just outside the campground. All sites are equipped with paved parking, tables, campfire rings and grills. The campground has paved roads, hosts, accessible flush toilets and drinking water are also provided.
Natural Features
Frenchman Lake Recreation Area is located in the northeast corner of the Sierra Nevada. The area is characterized by a blending of desert and mountain ecosystems. For example, draught tolerant plants co-mingle with pine forest. There is less precipitation here than what areas to the west receive, more than areas to the east. Erosion and lava flows in the area tell the story of recent geologic activity.
Nearby Attractions
Little Last Chance Canyon Scenic Area Sierra Valley - Largest valley in the Sierra Nevada Stores and services in the towns of Chilcoot and Loyalton Many forest roads to explore - take along a extra water, food, map, full tank and dependable vehicle. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (530) 836-2575.
What the agency tells you
Off-road vehicles are prohibited in the campground.
Generally, campsites will accommodate 2 vehicles. The first vehicle is included in the site fee, the second vehicle fee will be collected onsite at the daily rate posted on the fee sign.
American the Beautiful, Senior Passes, and Access Passes are accepted for single campsites only. They are not accepted for double or group campsites.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
Click here to learn more about the Plumas National Forest.
A variety of wildlife live in this area, including black bears. Before making a reservation, become aware of bear safety.
Please go to the following link for more information:http://www.centerforwildlifeinformation.org/BeBearAware/Hiking_and_Camping/hiking_and_camping.html
Bear resistant lockers are not provided.
The Showers are open for the camping season.
Check- In is 2:00pm and Check-Out is Noon
Campground Map
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 22 · 2 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 67 ft
- Paved pads
- 14 of 22
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…has paved roads, hosts, accessible flush toilets and drinking water are also provided. Natural…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…hosts, accessible flush toilets and drinking water are also provided. Natural Features Frenchman Lake…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Scenic drives
- Swimming
- Water access
- Water Skiing
- Water sports
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 601st darkest of 1,201 in CA
- Bortle 3
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 14 of the 22 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
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
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $34 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
26 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 14 mapped sitesAll 26 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 22 of the 26 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.
| AREA COTTONWOOD | 001 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 1,670 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA COTTONWOOD | 002 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 9 ft | 1,555 ft | $34 | |
| AREA COTTONWOOD | 003 | standard nonelectric | 19 ft | 1,626 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA COTTONWOOD | 004 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | 7 ft | 1,637 ft | $34 | |
| AREA COTTONWOOD | 005 | standard nonelectric | 49 ft | 1,593 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA COTTONWOOD | 006 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 7 ft | 1,548 ft | $34 | |
| AREA COTTONWOOD | 007 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 10 ft | 1,582 ft | $34 | |
| AREA COTTONWOOD | 008 | standard nonelectric | 43 ft | 1,564 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA COTTONWOOD | 009 | type not stated | 1,555 ft | $33.97 | |||
| AREA COTTONWOOD | 010 | type not stated | 1,561 ft | $33.97 | |||
| AREA COTTONWOOD | 011 | type not stated | 1,637 ft | $33.97 | |||
| AREA COTTONWOOD | 012 | type not stated | 1,605 ft | $33.97 | |||
| AREA COTTONWOOD | 013 | standard nonelectric | 56 ft | 7 ft | 1,600 ft | $34 | |
| AREA COTTONWOOD | 014 | type not stated | 1,521 ft | $33.97 | |||
| AREA COTTONWOOD | 015 | type not stated | 1,589 ft | $33.97 | |||
| AREA COTTONWOOD | 016 | standard nonelectric | 42 ft | 7 ft | 1,543 ft | $34 | |
| AREA COTTONWOOD | 017 | type not stated | 1,547 ft | $33.97 | |||
| AREA COTTONWOOD | 018 | type not stated | 1,557 ft | $33.97 | |||
| AREA COTTONWOOD | 019 | standard nonelectric | 46 ft | 7 ft | 1,630 ft | $34 | |
| AREA COTTONWOOD | 020 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 1,593 ft | $34 | ||
| AREA COTTONWOOD | B | group standard nonelectric | 67 ft | yes | 1,564 ft | $100–$140 | |
| AREA COTTONWOOD | D | group standard nonelectric | 61 ft | 10 ft | 1,589 ft | $100–$140 | |
| AREA COTTONWOOD | XXX | unnamed record | 40 ft | $33.97 | |||
| AREA COTTONWOOD | XXX10 | unnamed record | $33.97 | ||||
| AREA COTTONWOOD | XXX11 | unnamed record | $33.97 | ||||
| AREA COTTONWOOD | XXX9 | unnamed record | $33.97 |
The agency files 4 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It types every one of them MANAGEMENT rather than a campsite. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
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.
25 of 26 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
FrenchmanPlumas National Forest · 2.9 mi
Spring CreekPlumas National Forest · 3.3 miBig Cove CampgroundPlumas National Forest · 3.6 miBig Cove OverflowPlumas National Forest · 3.6 mi
Big Cove (Plumas National Forest, CA)Plumas National Forest · 3.6 miFrom Reno, Nevada, travel north on Highway 395, then merge onto Highway 70 west and travel 5 miles to Chilcoot. Turn north on Highway 284 and continue for 8 miles to the Frenchman Lake Reservoir, then turn left before crossing the dam and travel 2.5 miles to the Cottonwood Campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Chilcoot-Vinton, CA
Typical weather
Typical October night 37°F, day 66°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 24°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
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
Cottonwood (CA) is in California’s 3rd congressional district. Its representative, Kevin Kiley (I), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
Inside the Sugar Fire perimeter, 2021, 105,004 acres, with all 22 measured campsites inside it. Tree cover here read 40% in the 2021 product and 0% in the 2024 one.