Cottonwood Group Picnic Site
This place has sites and nobody may sleep in them.Ask for camping here →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 13 of the next 15 nights read 16:32 UTC
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Cottonwood Group Picnic Site is located next to scenic Cottonwood Lake on the Salt River Mountains, surrounded by the forests of western Wyoming. Keep reading
Recreation
The lake offers great canoeing and boating for smaller craft, as well as fishing for brook and cutthroat trout. Hiking, mountain biking, off-road vehicle and horseback riding trails are in the area.
Facilities
This day-use picnic site can accommodate up to 25 guests and 8-10 vehicles. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. A group overnight campsite is available for reservations here .
Natural Features
The picnic site is located above Cottonwood Lake, near the peaceful North Fork Creek. A forest of pines and aspens offers shade, and vibrant summer wildflowers are abundant. 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 United States.
What the agency tells you
There is no electricity at this site
Trash cans are provided, but visitors must bring garbage bags
Off-road vehicles permitted on designated trails only and not in the west loop of campground
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Off-road vehicles must have a current Wyoming State OHV sticker
Day-use only; camping is available at the adjacent Cottonwood Lake Campground
The Cottonwood Lake area is accessed via a narrow gravel road
District office hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday - Friday (excluding weekends and federal holidays), 671 N. Washington, Afton, WY
Learn more about Bridger-Teton National Forest
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.
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…up to 25 guests and 8-10 vehicles. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. A group overnight…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…and 8-10 vehicles. Vault toilets and drinking water are provided. A group overnight campsite is…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River, Creek
- Biking
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
Something open on 13 of the next 13 bookable nightsread 16:32 UTC
The agency files 2 records here and marks every one of them day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in.
OpenBookedNot reservable
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 · 12
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
recreation.gov availability, read 16:32 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
2 records · the site map
All 2 records
| COGPS | 001 | day use | 200 ft |
| Scan & Pay | S&P Site Type 0 | day use |
The agency files 2 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It files them as day use. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Cottonwood Group CampsiteBridger National Forest · 0.2 miSwift Creek CampgroundBridger National Forest · 7.6 mi
Cazier CabinBridger National Forest · 8.1 mi
La Barge Guard StationBridger National Forest · 10 miAllred Flat CampgroundBridger National Forest · 13 miMiddle Piney Lake CampgroundBridger National Forest · 13 miFrom Afton, Wyoming, take Highway 89 south approximately 7 miles to Smoot and watch for signs for the Cottonwood Lake Campground.
The forest boundary is about a mile up the access road, and the campground is 6 miles beyond that. Continue past the west first loop of the campground, then go right at the 'Y' intersection toward lake. The group picnic area is on the left side of the road.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Smoot, WY
Typical weather
Typical October night 21°F, day 55°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night -3°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
who answers for it · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Cottonwood Group Picnic Site 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
The agency’s own record files sites here and marks every one of them day use. The draft asks whether any could open to overnight camping, and if not, why.
- 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
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Cottonwood Group Picnic Site has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Harriet M. Hageman, I’m a constituent in Wyoming, at-large. Cottonwood Group Picnic Site, Bridger National Forest, Wyoming carries 2 records on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Cottonwood Group Picnic Site (Bridger National Forest, Wyoming) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Cottonwood Group Picnic Site has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Cynthia M. Lummis, I’m a constituent in Wyoming. Cottonwood Group Picnic Site, Bridger National Forest, Wyoming carries 2 records on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Cottonwood Group Picnic Site (Bridger National Forest, Wyoming) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Cottonwood Group Picnic Site has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear John Barrasso, I’m a constituent in Wyoming. Cottonwood Group Picnic Site, Bridger National Forest, Wyoming carries 2 records on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Cottonwood Group Picnic Site (Bridger National Forest, Wyoming) via campanac.com