Agency-listedUSFSFeeRoad season: open (MVUM)
Cottonwood
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · CA · 39.54868, -120.31970
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 as a developed campground. Expect marked sites, a fee station or a reservation, and the usual campground rules. The dispersed-camping freedom of the surrounding forest does not apply inside it. 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 · Tahoe National Forest · CA
The nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM is FR 0089-060-20 (Cottonwood Campground), 0 ft from the pin. The MVUM lists it as asphalt surface and maintenance level 5 – high degree of user comfort.
Road season: open (MVUM) The MVUM lists FR 0089-060-20 (Cottonwood Campground), 0 ft from the pin, open to passenger vehicles year-round.
MVUM record for FR 0089-060-20 (Cottonwood Campground): “01/01-12/31” Read against the calendar on 2026-09-22; with JavaScript your browser re-checks it against today.
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 5,596 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 · Tahoe National Forest · CA
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- @Mail4 mi
- FFuel4 mi
- GGrocery7 mi
- RxPharmacy10 mi
- HHardware10 mi
- WWater15 mi
- OOutfitter16 mi
- EVEV fast charger16 mi
- PPropane16 mi
- ShShower17 mi
- MMechanic17 mi
- DDump19 mi
- LLaundry19 mi
- +Urgent care22 mi
- AAir-up25 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
5,596 ft
Ground slope
5.3% · gentle
State
CA
Coordinates
39.54868, -120.31970
Cost
Fee
Nearby & resupply — around Cottonwood · Tahoe National Forest · CA (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureCottonwood Creek · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial stream
- Nearest townSierraville · ~3.2 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelSierraville Service and Country Store · ~3.7 mi
- Propane / LPG7-Eleven · ~16.4 mi
- Dump station~19.1 mi
- GroceriesSatley Food Store · ~7.3 mi
- PharmacyLoyalton Pharmacy, Barber, Haire Faire · ~9.7 mi
- Hospital / clinicUrgent Care · ~21.7 mi
- HardwareSierra Valley Home Center · ~9.7 mi
EV charging — from Cottonwood · Tahoe National Forest · CA — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger16.3 mi straight-line S — Truckee, CA (at a public site) · RIVIAN_ADVENTURE · CCS, NACS (Tesla) · 6 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach15 within 25 mi · 49 within 50 · 262 within 100 · 545 within 150
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO16.9 mi — DC CORRIDOR TRUCKEE DC1, Truckee
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)16.8 mi — TOWNOFTRUCKEE MOBILITY HUB2 · ChargePoint Network · J1772 · 1 Level 2 port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Also listed, not counted aboveNACS-only Level 2 — Whitehawk Lodge and Golf - Tesla Destination, Clio, 16.7 mi · NACS (Tesla) · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to Teslas only. · AFDC lists it “Free”
Level 2, restricted access — The Top Story, Loyalton, 9.7 mi · J1772 · hours: 8am-11pm daily; guest use only; Also accepts Venmo · AFDC lists it “$20 per session” - Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
- 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 391176 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Cottonwood · Tahoe National Forest · CA — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletCottonwood · at this camp · USFS
- RestroomCottonwood Botanical Interpretive · ~0.2 mi E · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletCold Creek · ~0.4 mi SE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletSierra Valley Shooting Range · ~1.1 mi NW · USFS
Coming out here — Cottonwood · Tahoe National Forest · CA
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Cottonwood Creek as a perennial stream, ~0.1 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as perennial is not the same as flowing today. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 5.3% — gentle. 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.
- Cold Creek~0.4 mi · fee
- Nichols Creek~3.7 mi
- Bear Valley Ohv~4.5 mi
- Lake of the Woods Campground~5.0 mi
The unit that manages Cottonwood
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Cottonwood are set by Tahoe 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
Developed FEE campground (not free) - review | auto:usfs-fee 2026-08-20: US Forest Service developed campground, agency coordinates, agency states a fee. No dollar amount in the agency record -- expect a charge and confirm the current rate before you go. Not field-verified. | Fee 2026-08-22: $20 per night, single site, plus $5 per vehicle per night for each additional vehicle. NAME NOTE: the forest publishes this campground as COTTONWOOD CREEK Campground -- our bare 'Cottonwood' has no page of its own, and the Cottonwood Creek page's printed coordinates match this pin to 0.001 mi. recreation.gov 232871 (COTTONWOOD CREEK, its own pin 0.18 mi from ours) books $20 standard non-electric for the 2026-05-22 to 2026-09-26 season. Sources: https://www.fs.usda.gov/r05/tahoe/recreation/cottonwood-creek-campground and https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/232871.
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.
- Whether that MVUM road is the way in, and the last stretch beyond it
- Whether the site itself closes on its own schedule — only the road's season is on record
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- 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 →Dispersed camping tips →All field notes →