Cottonwood Campground

We stayed here 2 nights in mid October. It’s a beautiful, FREE campground with stunning views. There were a few campers which looked like they might have been semi permanent although there’s a 14 day stay limit. But, in our section of the campground, we were the only ones camping. A family came in on Sunday and had a picnic but left as evening approached. Pit toilets were the only amenities.

We were traveling from Idaho to Arizona and this was a perfect. We didn’t book a site thinking it would be easy to find something on a Tuesday night. There are a few other places listed on Campendium in the vicinity. Ponderosa was a paid spot, and Bear Canyon ONLY had group sites. The dispersed camping was basically a homeless camp.

HOWEVER, Cottonwood was a true gem. We pulled in and while there were two campers (probably one family taking up 2 spots) on the northern circle, there was NOBODY on the southern one. We found a great back-in spot and enjoyed the rest of the evening to ourselves, save for 3 vehicles driving through to check the area out.

If you’re in a van/pickup w/camper there is a PERFECT spot, tucked in the trees. You’d have shade all day. In fact, there are a couple of these sites.

One of the best free spots I’ve seen in a while.

Nicely wooded, gorgeous mountain stream and free. Not much to complain about. We stayed here in our 16ft camp trailer with no problem with space, you would be hard pressed to go a whole lot bigger though. Spots are small and this is a decently busy campsite so you will likely have close neighbors. I guess the only complaint I had was hearing the other folks generators running late at night, but thats on them not the spot.

The roads and pads are gravel and most sites tend to be smaller than the sites at Ponderosa, BUT there were fewer people and the price can't be beat! There is a modern outhouse but no other services. One of the sites overlooks the creek. Most of the sites were brushy right up to the pad with only a few sites having solar potential. No cell connectivity at all.