Cottonwood (Big Bend, TX)

Nice quiet campground. Nice pit tiolets.

We camped one night mid March and there wasn't much shade at the campground. There was a vermillion flycatcher at the campsite and lots of open sky for star gazing. It's easy to get to Santa Elena canyon 7 mi down the road and a great hike in the morning before it gets too busy.

Excellent

Hot week but it was shady here. Open and quiet.

Very quiet and peaceful location. Short walk to view the river! Close to great trails! Well maintained.

The campsite was amazing. Super large and with 3 boxes for storage. 10 minutes away from Santa Elena Canyon! Such a pretty place and nice watcher of the sight. Very friendly. Bathrooms were nice and such a stunning national park. 40 minutes to the basin and 1.25 hours from the hot springs

Terrific campground. Clean. Quiet. Well-managed.

We were disappointed that any cottonwoods that may have been growing in the area apparently burned within the last few years. Also, although there are signs warning you that low-lying parts of the campground may be flooded by irrigation, it doesn't look like it's been irrigated in a long time. There was no grass. This is all in contrast to some photos that are around, showing green grass and leafy trees. But there are decent areas for pitching tents. There are some sparse large mesquites that cast some shade. The parking spot was level for our van. The other sites in general look fairly level. We appreciate that there was a campground in this remote location, and enjoyed visiting the Castolon Historic District and Santa Elena Canyon (and a couple of other interesting sites) without having to do a ton of driving. The bathrooms were decent (vault toilets, toilet paper, hand sanitizer in dispensers), and there is a campground host who checks on things a bit. There are trash and recycling bins. The picnic table was in good shape, as was the charcoal grill. A note about the grill - you can't lower the grate, so you need to use a lot of charcoal to generate enough heat to cook. If you could lower the grill, then fewer coals would be enough to cook a few items. I didn't verify this myself, but I heard there is a potable water spigot at one end of the campground (near the entrance), and the spigot at the far end (near where we camped) was signed as non-potable. If there are any hiking or walking trails accessible at this campground, I didn't see any signs for them. There's a little store in Castolon, a short drive (probably not a great walk along the road) away. Dawn was really pretty. I recorded seven bird species in a minute with the Merlin app around sunrise. I would camp here again if the plan is to do a bit of hiking in the area. It's certainly not a destination on its own.

Great location. Small cg. Bring water. Was able to book reservation for last available cs. Site okay, but there were plenty of spots. This is a systemic problem with Recreation.gov

Beautiful location and very tidy restrooms.
I'm sad that most of the namesake cottonwoods were cut down and there's less shade available.