Agency-listedUSFSFeeRoad season: open (MVUM)
Cottonwood Lake
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · CO · 39.07482, -107.96327
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 Lake · Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests · CO
The nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM is FR 257 (Cottonwood Lakes), 20 ft from the pin. The MVUM lists it as crushed aggregate or gravel surface and maintenance level 3 – suitable for passenger cars.
Road season: open (MVUM) The MVUM lists FR 257 (Cottonwood Lakes), 20 ft from the pin, open to passenger vehicles year-round.
MVUM record for FR 257 (Cottonwood Lakes): “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 Lake
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 10,147 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Cottonwood LakeNIFC · 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 Lake · Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests · CO
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- +Urgent care11 mi
- @Mail11 mi
- FFuel12 mi
- GGrocery12 mi
- EVEV fast charger12 mi
- DDump13 mi
- ShShower13 mi
- HHardware21 mi
- RxPharmacy21 mi
- MMechanic23 mi
- LLaundry23 mi
- WWater26 mi
- OOutfitter32 mi
- PPropane46 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 26-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 12 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 Lake
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
10,147 ft
Ground slope
9.2% · noticeable
State
CO
Coordinates
39.07482, -107.96327
Cost
Fee
Nearby & resupply — around Cottonwood Lake · Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests · CO (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureCottonwood Lake Number One · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Nearest townCollbran · ~11.4 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelFuel · ~11.7 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~12.6 mi
- GroceriesGrocery · ~11.7 mi
- PharmacyPalisade Pharmacy · ~21.4 mi
- Hospital / clinicHospital · ~11.3 mi
- HardwareCoop Country Store · ~20.9 mi
EV charging — from Cottonwood Lake · Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests · CO — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger12.4 mi straight-line S — SCVHISTSOC PIONEER TOWN 1, Cedaredge, CO · ChargePoint Network · CCS, NACS (Tesla) · 1 fast port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach5 within 25 mi · 43 within 50 · 85 within 100 · 169 within 150
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO23.3 mi — FAIRGROUNDSEV DELTAFAIRGROUND, Hotchkiss
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)23.1 mi — DELTA HEALTH EV-EAST · 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 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 332130 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Cottonwood Lake · Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests · CO — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletCottonwood Lake · at this camp · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletCottonwood Lake · ~0.2 mi W · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletCrag Crest · ~2.3 mi SE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletWard Lake · ~2.5 mi S · USFS
Coming out here — Cottonwood Lake · Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests · CO
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Cottonwood Lake Number One as a perennial lake or pond, ~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 9.2% — noticeable. 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 Lake elsewhere
Other camps near Cottonwood Lake
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Crag Crest Campground~2.2 mi
- Cobbett Campground~2.5 mi · fee
- Ward Lake~2.5 mi · fee
- Ward Lake Campground~2.8 mi
The unit that manages Cottonwood Lake
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Cottonwood Lake are set by Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
Snow, and when this opens
The nearest automatic snow station is Park Reservoir at 9,990 ft, about 5 miles away. That is about the height of this camp, so it is a fair proxy. We do not repeat a depth here, because any number we stored would be stale by the time you read it — the station publishes today's.
How we know this — Cottonwood Lake
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 2026-08-21: no rate published by the agency. This is Cottonwood Lake on the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison NF near Molina -- NOT the Cottonwood Lake near Buena Vista on the Pike-San Isabel, which is a different campground on a different forest and does have a published nightly rate. Do not copy that one's price onto this one. The GMUG has no live fs.usda.gov recreation page for this site (every slug returns 404) and its recreation.gov listing 10165245 returns an empty rates feed and an empty fee description. Checked https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/gmug/conditions (no fee table), https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/gmug/recreation/cottonwood-lake-campground (404) and https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/10165245. | Fee 2026-08-22: $18 per night per camping unit, with additional vehicles at $9 per night and firewood at $10 a bundle. Day use in a campsite is $6 per vehicle, but the GMUG spells out a trap worth knowing: the $6 day-use rate applies 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and if you are still in the site after 2 p.m. the full $18 overnight fee applies, less any day-use fee already paid. Season is Jun 26 to Sep 22, weather dependent. Two caveats: the page was last updated Sep 30 2025 and currently shows 'Site Closed - Closed for the season', which is the normal winter state rather than a permanent closure; and its recreation.gov listing has an empty rates feed, so there is no second source for the $18. Grand Valley Ranger District, near Collbran at 10,100 feet -- NOT the Salida-area Cottonwood Lake. Source: https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/gmug/recreation/cottonwood-lake-campground-grand-valley-rd.
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 Lake
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 Lake
Camping at altitude →When the high country opens →Winter vs summer roads →First-night troubleshooting →All field notes →