Little Cottonwood Campground
- Right now
- Closed for the seasonOut of the season the agency publishes
- A night
- $25From, per site
- Sites
- 14All of them booked ahead
- Season
- May 1 – September 30Open May 1 through September 30
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
The Little Cottonwood Campground is conveniently located off Utah's I-15, adjacent to the Beaver River just outside of the community of Beaver in the Fishlake National Forest. At 6,500 feet in elevation, this is a great place to enjoy the mountains where recreation opportunities include stream fishing, hiking, and hunting. Keep reading
Recreation
Enjoy fishing in the Beaver River; an accessible fishing path is located within the campground. The Piute ATV Trail is nearby; however there is no access directly from the campground. Be prepared to trailer ATVs to the nearby trailheads for access. Nearby Cottonwood Trail is a horse and foot trail that is accessed through the lower part of Cottonwood Campground. This rugged trail will lead southwest for about the first two miles and then takes a sharp turn to the east through Horse Flat.
Facilities
The campground has fourteen single-family campsites, two of which are accessible units available for reservation. All campsites are paved and have picnic tables and grills. An accessible restroom with flush toilets serves the campground. Potable water is available during the summer season. RVs up to 40 feet in length can be accommodated; no hook-ups are available.
Natural Features
Common vegetation includes cottonwood, aspen, pinion, juniper and ponderosa pine trees. A majority of campsites at Little Cottonwood are well-shaded. The Fishlake National Forest offers spectacular vistas and opportunities to view wildlife in their natural habitat. Elk, deer, black bear, moose, cougar and mountain goats are some of the large animals that call the forest home.
What the agency tells you
All sites are reservable and reservations are recommended as this campground is small and can fill quickly, especially during holidays and on weekends.
Street legal and non-street legal vehicles are allowed for access and egress only.
There are no electricity, water or sewer site hookups at the campground.
Everything else this campground posts · 5
This is a 'pack it in-out' facility. No garbage services are available. Please bring your own garbage bags.
Camping is limited to 16 days.
Any vehicles or trailers that can not fit in the designated site must be relocated to another site purchased at full site price. Check area map for available free parking.
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.
Discharging a firearm of any kind is prohibited: this includes BB guns, slingshots, paintball guns etc. Take these activities outside of the campground please.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 14
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 69 ft
- Paved pads
- 9 of 14
- Accessible sites
- 2
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- “…picnic tables and grills. An accessible restroom with flush toilets serves the campground. Potable water is available…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…flush toilets serves the campground. Potable water is available during the summer season. RVs up to 40…”
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Visitor center
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 226th darkest of 458 in UT
- 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 · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $25 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
14 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 14 mapped sitesAll 14 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 14 of the 14 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| LITTLE COTTONWOOD CAMPGROUND | 01 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 96 ft | 81 ft | $25 | |
| LITTLE COTTONWOOD CAMPGROUND | 02 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 96 ft | 104 ft | $25 | |
| LITTLE COTTONWOOD CAMPGROUND | 03 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 67 ft | 98 ft | $25 | |
| LITTLE COTTONWOOD CAMPGROUND | 04 | standard nonelectric | 67 ft | 116 ft | $25 | ||
| LITTLE COTTONWOOD CAMPGROUND | 05 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 84 ft | 123 ft | $25 | |
| LITTLE COTTONWOOD CAMPGROUND | 06 | standard nonelectric | 55 ft | 83 ft | 131 ft | $25 | |
| LITTLE COTTONWOOD CAMPGROUND | 07 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 83 ft | 109 ft | $25 | |
| LITTLE COTTONWOOD CAMPGROUND | 08 | standard nonelectric | 69 ft | yes | 103 ft | 158 ft | $25 |
| LITTLE COTTONWOOD CAMPGROUND | 09 | standard nonelectric | 49 ft | yes | 97 ft | 116 ft | $25 |
| LITTLE COTTONWOOD CAMPGROUND | 10 | standard nonelectric | 48 ft | 97 ft | 107 ft | $25 | |
| LITTLE COTTONWOOD CAMPGROUND | 11 | standard nonelectric | 41 ft | 88 ft | 97 ft | $25 | |
| LITTLE COTTONWOOD CAMPGROUND | 12 | standard nonelectric | 39 ft | 88 ft | 117 ft | $25 | |
| LITTLE COTTONWOOD CAMPGROUND | 13 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 114 ft | 140 ft | $25 | |
| LITTLE COTTONWOOD CAMPGROUND | 14 | standard nonelectric | 44 ft | 159 ft | 107 ft | $25 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Mahogany Cove CampgroundFishlake National Forest · 3.2 miTushar Lakeside CampgroundFishlake National Forest · 4.3 mi
Kents Lake CampgroundFishlake National Forest · 4.8 mi
Anderson Meadow Campground (Fishlake NF, UT)Fishlake National Forest · 6.9 miTravel east of Beaver approximately 6 miles on SR 153.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Beaver, UT
Typical weather
Typical May night 36°F, day 63°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical May 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 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
Little Cottonwood Campground is in Utah’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Celeste Maloy (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →