Agency-listedUSFSFree
Cottonwood
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · CA · 34.63945, -118.50279
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →U.S. Forest Service lists this site. On most of their ground you can camp away from developed sites pretty much anywhere — so treat this as a known-good spot, not the only one allowed. The unit sets stay limits and how far off road and water you must be. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
Nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM — Cottonwood · Angeles National Forest · CA
No road within 1 mi of the pin in the national MVUM layer — and that layer carries no data at all for this forest (unit 0501), so this is the layer's silence, not the ground's. Access may be a county road or unmapped.
From the Forest Service's own Motor Vehicle Use Map roads layer (EDW, Clearinghouse refresh Aug 30, 2026), straight-line from the pin to the nearest mapped segment. The nearest segment is not necessarily the way in, a maintenance level is the agency's class and not a report on today, and a road's season is the road's — it is not a campground order. What the levels mean → What an MVUM is →
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Cottonwood
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 2,714 ft.
Fire & smoke — around CottonwoodNIFC · AirNow
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.
Everything you need — measured from Cottonwood · Angeles National Forest · CA
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel4 mi
- @Mail5 mi
- GGrocery5 mi
- ShShower11 mi
- RxPharmacy12 mi
- EVEV fast charger12 mi
- PPropane12 mi
- LLaundry12 mi
- WWater14 mi
- HHardware14 mi
- MMechanic15 mi
- +Urgent care15 mi
- OOutfitter18 mi
- AAir-up22 mi
- DDump25 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 4 mi out.
One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗
The site — Cottonwood
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
2,714 ft
Ground slope
52.4% · steep
State
CA
Coordinates
34.63945, -118.50279
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Cottonwood · Angeles National Forest · CA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featurenone named within 1 mi (USGS NHD)
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelFuel · ~4.3 mi
- Propane / LPGPilot Travel Center · ~12.0 mi
- Dump station~24.6 mi
- GroceriesGreen Valley Market & Gas · ~5.2 mi
- PharmacyRite Aid · ~11.9 mi
- Hospital / clinicU.S. HealthWorks Medical Group · ~15.2 mi
- HardwareThe Home Depot · ~14.3 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
EV charging — from Cottonwood · Angeles National Forest · CA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger11.9 mi straight-line SW — Castaic Village Shopping Center - Tesla Supercharger (at a shopping center) · Tesla · CCS, NACS (Tesla) · 32 fast ports listed · listed open, no confirmation date on the record · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach36 within 25 mi · 357 within 50 · 1002 within 100 · 1302 within 150
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO14.8 mi — Bridgeport Marketplace, Valencia
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)13.2 mi — SANTA CLARITA DAVIDMARCHPARK1 · ChargePoint Network · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Pricing at the fast charger$0.66 per kWh (as listed by AFDC)
- Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 468055 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Cottonwood · Angeles National Forest · CA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletUpper Shake · ~3.9 mi NW · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletLake Elizabeth · ~5.5 mi E · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletSawmill · ~5.8 mi NW · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletRowher Flat · ~11.8 mi SE · USFS
Coming out here — Cottonwood · Angeles National Forest · CA
- No named surface water mapped within 1 mi of the pin in USGS's National Hydrography Dataset (data refreshed October 2022), and none within about a mile and a half in our OpenStreetMap pull — which is not proof there is none, only that neither map has one. Plan to carry washing water as well as drinking water.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 52.4% — steep. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (1 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No rail line and no interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin. Checked against the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) and the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). Both are national files and both are maps of what is built, not counts of what moves on it.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open Cottonwood elsewhere
Other camps near Cottonwood
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Prospect~3.3 mi
- Upper Shake~3.9 mi
- Sawmill~5.8 mi · fee
- Spunky~6.7 mi
The unit that manages Cottonwood
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Cottonwood are set by Angeles National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
How we know this — Cottonwood
Source
U.S. Forest Service recreation data
Confidence
Likely — The record is good enough to put a pin on, but thin in places. Treat the details as a starting point, not gospel.
How it was placed
Free but developed (not dispersed) - review
Nearest MVUM road
US Forest Service Motor Vehicle Use Map roads layer (EDW_MVUM_01, layer 1), Clearinghouse refresh Aug 30, 2026. Straight-line distance from the pin to the nearest mapped segment within 1 mi; surface type, maintenance level and open dates are the agency's own values for that segment, expanded from its codes and otherwise unedited. Nothing here says which road reaches the site.
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.
What we don’t know about Cottonwood
A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
- Road surface & last-mile access
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- Seasonal & winter access
- Current fire restrictions
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it
Before you go — Cottonwood
Water on public land →What “dispersed” means here →Reading a forest MVUM →Leave no trace →All field notes →