Cottonwood Group Site (ND)
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 12 notices
In the agency’s own words
For people visiting the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Cottonwood Campground is a great place to stay. Located five miles (8 km) from the entrance to the South Unit of the park, the campground is open year-round. This reservation section is for reserving the group site at the Cottonwood Campground. Reservations for the group campsite go on sale March 1 for the camping season. If you are interested in reservations for an individual camp site at the Cottonwood Campground please see the Cottonwood Campground (ND) section. The group site serves as a great central camping area providing easy driving access to a varitey of locations and activities. Keep reading
Recreation
Hikers can access the estimated 70 miles (21 km) of trails within a short distance of the campground. Visit the Hiking and Trail Information page on the park website or stop at a Visitor Center for more details. Located immediately adjacent to the Little Missouri River and filled with Cottonwood trees bird watching in the campground can be a rewarding experience. Watch for Bison that can be seen traveling through the campground on their way to a stop at the river. Just a few miles from the campground is the Peaceful Valley Ranch. A former ranch from Theodore Roosevelt's time, the location also serves as one of the best sites in the park for outstanding night sky viewing.
Facilities
Toilets, drinking water and picnic tables are provided in the campground. The group site can accomodate 7-20 people. There are no hookups or a dump station. A water fill station is available for campers (through October 1 each year). All wheeled vehicles and trailers must remain on roadways or pads. The Group Site (site #25) goes on sale the first business day of March for the upcoming summer season.
Natural Features
The Little Missouri River is the central, unifying feature of this wild and broken land where, as a young man, Theodore Roosevelt ranched and hunted in the 1880s. The park is part of both the Northern Great Plains and the West, blending a rich natural beauty with diverse human history. The rugged topography, with its flora and fauna, also provides an opportunity to discover the badlands environment as Roosevelt once did. It is a place to experience a land and way of life that helped shape Theodore Roosevelt's attitudes and philosophy regarding conservation. Cottonwood trees surrounding the campsite turn golden in the fall. Although the campground is moderately forested, most of the campsites are in partial to full sun but visitors can cool off in the cold river when temperatures peak during summer.
Nearby Attractions
The town of Medora has shopping, restaurants, amenities and the Medora Musical is located approximately five miles (8 km) to the south. The Little Missouri National Grassland is the largest National Grassland in the nation at 1.03 million acres (416,826 ha). It is located in western North Dakota and is managed by the Medora Ranger District in Dickinson, ND and the McKenzie Ranger District in Watford City, ND. The National Grassland provides additional recreation opportunities in the area.
What the agency tells you
Water may not be available by May 1 or continue through September 30, water access at the start and end of the season is weather dependent. Vault toilets will be available.
Mobile coverage, cellular, can be very limited at the group campsite. Stronger signals can be accessed nearby.
The picnic tables are a short walk from the parking pad.
Everything else this campground posts · 9
The site fits sliders.
Vehicle (VR) Height over 13 feet (4m). Trees and branches in the campground may not accomidate vehicles of this height. Camping equipment my experience significant damage for which the National Park Service is not responsible.
Entrance Fee. The park collects a separate park entrance fee of $30 per vehicle. Visitors may pay the fee upon arrival or puchase in advance. The fee is valid for seven days. The park also honors Federal Interagency passes (e.g. Annual, Senior, Access, Every Kid in the Park, Golden Age, Military, etc. For more information visit the park's Fees & Passes web page.
Check-in & Check-out Time. Check-in/out time is 12:00 noon.
Maximum Stay. During the busy season of May 1 through October 31, campers may stay a maximum of 14 nights total in the Cottonwood Campground and a maximum of 30 days total in a calendar year. This includes the non-reservation, self-registration season of November through April.
Generators. generators hours are from 8:00a.m. to 8:00p.m. Generators must have an effective muffler.
No showers. There are no shower or laundry facilities located in the park.
Campfires. During hot and dry summer months, fire restrictions are common and campfires (including charcoal fires) may be prohibited.
Firewood. Firewood is not for sale in the park. The closest place to buy wood is in Medora, approximatly 5.5 miles (9km) away. Gathering of dead and downed firewood is allowed.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- VAULT TOILETS on 1 of 1 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…night sky viewing. Facilities Toilets, drinking water and picnic tables are provided in the campground.…”
- Dump station
- Yes
Around the campground
- On the water
- River
- Amphitheater
- Birding
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Picnicking
- Scenic drives
- Stargazing
- Wilderness access
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 15th darkest of 27 in ND
- Bortle 3
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
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 · 17
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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 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. 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.
| Cottonwood | Cottonwood Group Site | group standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 464 ft | 308 ft | $60 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Cottonwood Campground (ND)Theodore Roosevelt National Park · 0.2 mi
Roundup Group Horse CampTheodore Roosevelt National Park · 3.9 mi
Buffalo Gap Campground (ND)Little Missouri National Grassland · 6.8 mi
Wannagan CampgroundLittle Missouri National Grassland · 7.6 mi
Elkhorn CampgroundLittle Missouri National Grassland · 20 mi
Magpie CampgroundLittle Missouri National Grassland · 25 miDIRECTIONS
Enter the South Unit in Medora. Travel 5.5 miles on the scenic drive (East River Road). Cottonwood Campground is on the left.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Medora, ND
Typical weather
Typical October night 30°F, day 58°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
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 Group Site (ND) is in North Dakota’s at-large congressional district. Its representative, Julie Fedorchak (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →