Cottonwood (Big Bend, TX)

This is like real camping. We love the natural settings. Santa Elena trail was amazing. The history around the area is interesting. The visitor center shows the history if you are interested.

Quiet smaller campground. No generator policy helps keep things quieter. Also since smaller sites no big rigs can fit, just a heads up. Ranger came to tell us a male Horned Owl was in a tree and to go look. That owl was huge. No cell service which was known ahead of time. Plenty of shade from the trees. Great overnight stay.

Cottonwood is the quiet campsite among the Cottonwood trees. It is on the way to Santa Elena which is the highlight of Big Bend.

The quiet and remoteness of this campground was great. It's nice to have a small campground when visiting a national park. The proximity to Santa Elena Canyon is good too

Great place to camp close to the canyon.

This is a nice, quiet campground for those who prefer simple campgrounds that don't attract the giant RVs. I like that generators are not allowed and that amenities are limited to pit toilets and water. Be advised it is a couple hours drive from the East side of the park. Not a bad idea to split your time at the Park among this campground and Rio Grande Village and/or Chisos Basin campgrounds just to minimize the driving back and forth.

We had a limited time in the park so for this visit we stayed pretty close to the scenic drive and enjoyed lots of the hikes off of it. We loved camped at Cottonwood. It was quiet and peaceful down there and everyone was so friendly! We enjoyed the wildlife ranger led talk right across from our campsite and even had a campsite neighbor show us planets, constellations and the moon on his telescope. We will definitely choose this location again for a future visit to the park.

Great park staff. Very clean. These are the best outhouses ever! Great Horned Owls nesting in the tree. We had a great time!

Very peaceful with lots of bird and other wildlife. Generators are not allowed, but occasionally people still used them, usually just for one night then they left. We chose this campground because generators are not allowed, so were disappointed to have a generator running next to us several times, and often through the night and all day, during our 2 weeks there. I know the website for this campground says that generators are not allowed but apparently people either didn't see that or ignored it. We love listening to the birds and the breeze in the cottonwoods and did not appreciate having that drowned out by a loud machine.
The bathrooms were spotless and cleaned every day. The camp host came around frequently and was very friendly.
We really enjoyed our stay and will likely be back.

Sites are pretty close together with no obvious places to put a tent (maybe in the drainage ditch that runs between the parking spots)?? Our site was across from a spigot that was spewing out water continuously. Regardless, this is a good location for bird watching, star gazing, and visiting Santa Elena. And the pit toilets were remarkably clean and well maintained. Walk into the exit of Santa Elena canyon, picnic at the Santa Elena take-out, and if you want to see other birds, visit the Sam Nail Ranch. I wouldn't miss the walk down to the Chisos Mountain Window (sunset!) or the Lost Mine Trail (scenic overlooks into Mx; bring a picnic!) Enjoy this beautiful rugged park!