Cottonwood Campground — Big Bend National Park

Really enjoyed our two nights here! Plenty of trees provide much needed shade, pit toilets, potable drinking water plus different spigots for dishwashing water.

This is a beautiful campground deep inside Big Bend NP. Only 25 sites. Typical NP camping with few amenities. Picnic tables and bathrooms. All sites are by reservation only and fill up quickly. Convenient to exploring Big Bend

This was a perfect experience on our trip south through Big Bend . Spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day here . Water is gravity fed . Awesome place near the Santa Elena Canyon . Quiet dark and safe

This is a remote campground close to Santa Elena Canyon. There is a very small store next the the nearby visitors center with a small selection of drinks, snacks and food plus a microwave. The campground had lots of birdwatchers! Some areas were flooded due to irrigation. This campground only has out toilets, fyi! You can’t beat the location though!!

Cottonwood Campground is nothing very special, in our opinions but served it’s purpose! It’s very close to Santa Elena and a great spot as a home base for exploring the west side of Big Bend. The campground is right off Ross Maxwell road and a few miles before you reach Santa Elena. The sites are in a long loop. They had just created several more sites when we were there - 29 in total I believe. Pit toilets, potable water and trash are available, as well as a bear box in every site. There was a couple serving as camp host that were very kind and happy to lend advice. Campground was quiet and calm when we were here in January. A gentleman next to us set up a big telescope at night and let everyone gaze at Jupiter and the moon and such. Was really lovely!

This a nice little campground close to the Rio Grande and only a few miles from the Santa Elena canyon. The sites some what close together but still roomy. The pit toilets were extremely clean. The park host and national park employees friendly and helpful.

Cottonwood Campground is a quiet oasis in the western corner of Big Bend National Park. Reservations are required. Conveniently located between the Castolon Historic District, the scenic Santa Elena Canyon and the tail end of the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive, this small, 22-site campground is one of the least-known and quiet campgrounds in the park. There is one group campsite and 21 individual sites. 

This is a remote campground in a remote park. It is dry camping, no hook-ups, and no generators are permitted. 

• Cell Phone Reception, No 

• Internet Connectivity, No 

• Trash/Recycling Collection. Yes, Year-Round 

• Food Storage Lockers, Yes, Year-Round 

• Laundry, No Dump Station, No 

• Potable Water, Yes on site

The campground is one of the lower places in elevation, 2200 feet in the national park, it is hot in sprint and summer, over 100F at summer afternoons. Not recommended from May to September, use instead Chisos Basin Campground(5,400 feet) where the temperature is lower 15 to 20 degrees than any campground near the Rio Grande

Small, dispersed camping only area, about 25 total sights. Camped 4 nights while on a group hiking adventure in mid-Feb. Water, pit toilets, tables, and grills provided at each spot. This location is remote! Its 38 miles to Panther Junction and the Chisos Basin area, 20 miles further to the Boquillas Canyon area, but only 7 miles to Santa Elena Canyon. It's a beautiful drive to the campground with lots of hiking trails and vistas along the way. Nights were very quiet. Friendly camp host. Recommend if you're staying in the park for several days and don't mine driving a lot (the park is huge!)

We loved it. No hookups, no generators. Just quiet. Zero cell service so don't even think about it. We camped there in the new year. Did a bunch of hiking and bird watching.

Not big rig friendly. Smaller trailers, tents and van life.

Quiet and nice campground. Large grass area which is perfect for the tents. Location close to the Rio Grande and the Santa Elena Canyon. Convenient store half a mile away.

This campground was very nice, had some shade, some wide open, so you want to arrive early to get a more choices. We enjoyed it!

To much to see in one day.

When we visited a few years ago, the camp was sparsely populated. Javelinas were about though, so exercise caution.

Be lulled to sleep to the gentle rustle of cottonwood trees. I tent sleep so I like a place where you can set up a tent without having a ton of rocks. They irrigate the camp so it is muddy at times and when that rare rain storm comes up the camp will flood. If you leave food out you will be visited by skunks, javelinas, raccoons and bears. During the summer it will be brutally hot during the day, but i have had the entire campground to myself for up to a week. Late summer this is one of the penultimate places on the planet to photograph the Milky Way. Since you are near to Santa Elena canyon you can drive up and get the iconic picture of the Milky Way stretched across it.

The is a Big Bend National National Park Campsite. The Camp is adjacent to the Rio Grande River and a popular camping spot for can expeditions. The site is sometimes an overflow from Chisos Basin Campers during busy season. The sites are in a grass meadow in one large loop. During the off-season this campground is usually close to empty. The major advantage is river access and proximity to the Santa Elena Canyon. They have basic restrooms, fire pits, and tables. If you are traveling along the Rio Grande this is a great option. You don’t get the scenic vistas from this site due to its low lying elevation.

This campground was very secluded when I visited, there were two others sites taken during my visit. The area was very quiet and we had fun watching the collared pecaries foraging through the sites. We saw multiple bird species and it was a very easy walk to the Rio Grande.

Small enough to not be noisy, large enough to be accommodating. Central to multiple trails. Staff was friendly and knowlegable. Shade trees at many sites, important even in November in Texas. Showers and restrooms available. Highly recommend!

If you are looking for a quiet campground, with no ambient light to diminish your view of the night sky, stay at this campground. Pit toilets only but who cares.

Also this campground doesn't seem to fill up as fast as others in Big Bend. Which means more open camp sites and a better selection. It might not have the best of views but the sunsets and night sky was amazing.

Nice flat sites, plenty of trees and shade, not a ton of sites which keeps it pretty quiet and more laid back and calm.

The site here was really peaceful with a huge campground. I took my family and my boyfriends family here for a weekend getaway in December of 2016. I was able to get the only group site here. We were located at the edge of the Rio grande. The site was a quiet one but with a couple of RVs coming in and out. I believe there are about 30 smaller sites surrounding our group site. There is no firewood here and you would need to pick up at the few gas stations you come along the way. During our stay the temperature was around the 70s and at night it dropped to the chilling 40s. The mornings was a little breezy. We were able to drive to Emory trail head and hike about 1 and a half miles. I would definitely recommend this campground.