Cottonwood (Big Bend, TX)

Absolutely Stunning! Park host Mark, was fantastic!

I wish the bathroom had electricity because I was scared of the snakes

I greatly enjoyed the silence and the wind at this beautiful campground near Santa Elena Canyon. It is a wonderful place. The caretakers are very kind. One of them asked a truck with loud music to turn it off—that was excellent. These remote places are meant to be listened to, not invaded. Great campground. Very adequate restrooms.

This is a great, smaller campground. Camp host was very friendly and helpful suggesting possible hikes. Potable water available along with non-potable spigots if you're willing to boil or treat. The vault toilets could use some solar lights to make using them at night easier. Every site has trees and shade which is a plus. They also have picnic tables and a BBQ grill, no wood fires though. Quiet, even though it's very close to the road. Javelina foraged through the camp and we were able to get fairly close which was a treat.

During our visit, we saw a very well run campground. Our camp host was diligent and we saw her making her rounds multiple times a day, making sure everything was in order. The pit toilets were cleaned regularly. It is unfortunate that the campground isn’t on a first-come basis anymore.

For a campsite of this purpose it was what you would hope for. There were several water supplies. BBQ and bear box at each campsite. The compostable toilets were as well maintained as you can expect and the views were great. Note that it is almsot 50 minutes from Chisos Basin but there are a lot of great hikes nearby.

The campground is a 45 minute drive from the main visitor center at Panther Junction, the closest place for gas, so plan ahead. The campsites have wonderful, flat, parking spaces. The campground has very sparse vegetation so that there isn’t any privacy between the sites. Pit toilets only, but very well maintained and odor controlled. There is only 1 spigot for drinking water at the front of the campground which is a bit of a hike if you're at the back. They have FULL recycling-including paper. The campground is quiet and safe. The ‘store’ at Castolon is very minimal. The best store is at Rio Grande campground. I would not want to be in this campground in hot weather because there isn't any shade. The Rio Grande river is close, but very low river levels-its more of a small, slow stream.

An amazing remote campground with beautiful views.

We stayed in both cottonwood and rio grande village and cottonwood was the better of the two. Quieter and closer to many more hikes. Vault toilets were supremely clean!

I loved our campsite, not a ton of other campers, super close to the Rio Grande, great for exploring that side of the park and in decent proximity to Terlingua if one wants to go into town.