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Cottonwood Campground
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Cottonwood Campground
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The Cottonwood Campground is reservation only and has 62 sites, potable water and flush toilets. The Campground is near the Cottonwood Visitor Center in the southeast part of the park. The closest metropolitan area is Indio about 30 miles away. Cottonwood Campground fees will increase to $35 per site starting January 1, 2025. Cottonwood Group Campground fees will increase to $55 per site starting January 1, 2025.
Reservations are required year-round and can be made up to six months in advance. Book a site at www.recreation.gov or by calling 877-444-6777.
Official reservation information ↗Published campsites
- total Sites
- 62
- group
- 3
- horse
- 0
- tent Only
- 0
- electrical Hookups
- 0
- rv Only
- 0
- walk Boat To
- 0
- other
- 0
Published camping fees
- Campsite Fee
- $35 · Individual Campsite Fee. A maximum of six people, three tents, and two cars may occupy an individual campsite, only if there is space available. Some sites only have enough parking for one vehicle.
- Group Campsite Fee
- $55 · There are three group campsites. Tents only. RVs and habitable trailers prohibited.
- Senior/Access Pass Campsite Fee
- $17.5 · Nightly camping fee for one site for a camper with a Senior or Access pass. A maximum of six people, three tents, and two cars may occupy an individual campsite, only if there is space available. Some sites only have enough parking for one vehicle.
- Senior/Access Pass Group Campsite Fee
- $27.5 · Nightly camping fee for one site for a camper with a Senior or Access pass. There are three group campsites. Tents only. RVs and habitable trailers prohibited.
Amenities
- trash Recycling Collection
- Yes - year round
- toilets
- Flush Toilets - year round
- internet Connectivity
- No
- showers
- None
- cell Phone Reception
- No
- laundry
- No
- amphitheater
- Yes - year round
- dump Station
- Yes - year round
- camp Store
- No
- staff Or Volunteer Host Onsite
- No
- potable Water
- Yes - year round
- ice Available For Sale
- No
- firewood For Sale
- No
- food Storage Lockers
- No
Accessibility and facilities
- wheelchair Access
- Most campsites have uneven terrain. Many roads are unpaved. The paved roads are crumbling and uneven. The Cottonwood Visitor Center has ADA access and the parking lot is well paved and flat. There is a wheelchair accessible restroom.
- fire Stove Policy
- Because of the park's very dry climate, fire danger in Joshua Tree is almost always very high. Be cautious. Campfires are allowed only in designated fire rings or grills that are found in park campgrounds or picnic areas. Keep fires small. Bring your own firewood. You may not gather park vegetation, whether living or dead, to fuel your campfire. If you plan to have a campfire, bring extra water to douse it thoroughly.
- rv Allowed
- 1
- rv Info
- There are no hookups for RVs at any campground in Joshua Tree. Cottonwood Campground has RV-accessible potable water and dump stations. Generator use is permitted only from 7-9 am, noon-2 pm, and 5-7 pm. RVs and trailers are allowed in sites if space permits. RVs and trailers are not allowed at the group campsites at Cottonwood Campground.
- rv Max Length
- 35
- trailer Max Length
- 35
- ada Info
- The Cottonwood Amphitheater is ADA accessible from Loop A. There are no ADA accessible campsites in the campground. Campgrounds with ADA accessible campsites include Indian Cove (site 1), Jumbo Rocks (site 122), and Black Rock (site 61).
- trailer Allowed
- 1
- access Roads
- Paved Roads - All vehicles OK
- classifications
- Developed Campground
Official NPS information and current conditions ↗
1 matching records · Campground records| Place / record | Campground records | Context | Explore |
|---|
| Cottonwood Campground | 1 | The Cottonwood Campground is reservation only and has 62 sites, potable water and flush toilets. The Campground is near the Cottonwood Visitor Center in the southeast part of the park. The closest metropolitan area is Indio about 30 miles away. Cottonwood Campground fees will increase to $35 per site starting January 1, 2025. Cottonwood Group Campground fees will increase to $55 per site starting January 1, 2025. | Profile → |
|---|
SOURCES & DEFINITIONS
Know what the map counts.
Source: National Park Service API for sites, facilities, campground locations and published fee entries; NPS Public Use Statistics for monthly recreation visits, 1979–2025. Snapshot retrieved 2026-10-03. 474 NPS site records include 62 national-park API records; Sequoia and Kings Canyon share one API record. These record counts are not the official count of individually designated parks. 392 API site records have matched visitation history, including the separately reported Sequoia and Kings Canyon visit totals combined for their shared API record. 665 campgrounds are included.
Complete monthly series reconcile with the source’s annual totals. Published annual totals remain available for years with partial monthly reporting. Four monthly entries contain negative accounting corrections. They remain in the archived data and annual totals, and are unavailable as ordinary monthly visit counts. Blank data is not zero. Recreation visits are visits, not unique people. Month as percent of annual peak = selected month visits ÷ largest monthly count that year × 100, requiring twelve nonnegative monthly values. This helps compare recorded seasonality; it is not a crowding forecast, reservation forecast, or present-condition report.
Activities and amenities reflect published NPS entries, rather than a guarantee of access on a particular day. Fees and pass categories are dated 2026-10-03; official site and reservation links provide current conditions and rules. Campground points are published NPS coordinates. Offshore sites can be viewed on the world extent. Broader public-land agencies are outside this reviewed NPS snapshot.
World outlines: Natural Earth 1:50m map units, public domain. U.S. state outlines: Census via us-atlas. Source licenses apply to their respective inputs and derived data. Download the derived parks snapshot · Source manifest, retrieval dates and SHA-256 hashes.
Archived inputs and attribution (14)
- nps-parks.json · National Park Service · NPS federal data; media rights vary by credit · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 3,921,936 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: 29b719dea3c3361c4ef1d7c0f068da09ee366e5335907442453b08db7737072b - nps-campgrounds.json · National Park Service · NPS federal data; media rights vary by credit · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 3,464,748 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: 9762634332c69e5ed729fbe4751a163cab534722c07c7e595b857e9a372b75e3 - nps-campgrounds-500.json · National Park Service · NPS federal data; media rights vary by credit · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 967,966 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: 4160009fb0ddc173680428bba03b765398deeca9d303a518821967c7db5fea20 - nps-visitation-2025-2025.csv · National Park Service · NPS federal data · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 1,071,221 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: 878c51940ae94a29c7e47518d2321713e6d48ad9b008408530723745ca5fab5a - nps-visitation-2021-2024.csv · National Park Service · NPS federal data · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 4,209,731 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: 508548d54089885eb78af5a81c63856ba289c01ee8f39c2d096267b3cf9ce243 - nps-visitation-1979-1983.csv · National Park Service · NPS federal data · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 3,868,488 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: 494795b9ffb6da1f00e10614cde87ef8b18aca67e9c504c2196ba0346c21ddd7 - nps-visitation-1984-1988.csv · National Park Service · NPS federal data · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 4,171,732 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: cd6e3b86c83ecc9ab11d123ea8f560f0590446020fe66eea21e272eb8d931eb7 - nps-visitation-1989-1993.csv · National Park Service · NPS federal data · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 4,393,574 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: 22960690990cec0c7af0e7a55d87ef7ee3d8a116afd81bf753c821f65e50ad00 - nps-visitation-1994-1998.csv · National Park Service · NPS federal data · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 4,538,236 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: c021fdd6108c9d3e1047b954376cf8e01c4f8abf0f327dfe081596dff7939e48 - nps-visitation-1999-2003.csv · National Park Service · NPS federal data · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 4,704,673 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: da3f808031e6f26e1e36c42cc11403b415e24e67844762ac51f33998d2c1cd5f - nps-visitation-2004-2008.csv · National Park Service · NPS federal data · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 4,844,655 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: 373f1d9ae9eff33e2e73b3bfc26d26c6504d2f831fc5b41c5c1e3df7bade6047 - nps-visitation-2009-2013.csv · National Park Service · NPS federal data · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 4,928,350 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: 968591a7dd40985cc44fea48568b8a0880953c7b982b328a6c88077d064c12c2 - nps-visitation-2014-2018.csv · National Park Service · NPS federal data · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 5,057,268 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: 76f1e2173bee73eee3550e4e2e3a987e19d67d4f6841c9c726fa412360a3fb20 - nps-visitation-2019-2020.csv · National Park Service · NPS federal data · retrieved 2026-10-03 · 2,028,678 uncompressed bytes. Published source · Archived input (gzip)
SHA-256: 661d426529aa1b5771d52e29c90758b943edf883fa8e1f9c53f76851e450e5f1
