Photo: Frank Schulenburg · CC BY-SA 4.0Cottonwood has 12 miles of mapped trails, 0.9 for every square mile of land
12 acres are parks and preserves, 1.6 per 1,000 residents. 21% of residents live within a half mile of a park.
Ahead of 20% of U.S. towns · #756 of 847 in California. What drives it
What kind of outdoors town is Cottonwood?
Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.
How much outdoors does Cottonwood have?
On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Cottonwood is ahead of 20% of U.S. towns, #756 of 847 in California. Trail miles hold the grade up; conserved land pulls it down.
PAD-US, OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors), Census 2025 Gazetteer and 2020 blocks; details in Sources below. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →
Conserved land, trails & bike routes
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it.
3 conserved acres
under 1% of Cottonwood’s land. Who manages Cottonwood’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
| Parcel (PAD-US) | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cottonwood Community Park Local Park | Town or city | 3 | Open |
4 places to go in Cottonwood
Beaches, playgrounds, peaks, falls and more. Pick a kind.
4 playgrounds without a name on the map. Tap “Show all on map” to see them.
2 named trails and 2 lakes & rivers
0.0 miles of bike routes
Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.
Includes school and college facilities, which aren’t always open to the public.
1 place on the National Register
The country’s official list of places worth saving (National Park Service). The map also marks 1 historic points from OpenStreetMap: plaques, memorials and old buildings.
The best walking months in Cottonwood: April and May
NOAA’s 1991–2020 normals for the town and the daylight at its latitude. Outlined months have long days, highs of 59 to 86 °F and little rain for the place.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daylight (h) | 9.6 | 10.6 | 11.8 | 13.2 | 14.4 | 15.0 | 14.8 | 13.8 | 12.4 | 11.0 | 9.9 | 9.3 |
| High (°F) | 57 | 60 | 65 | 72 | 81 | 91 | 98 | 96 | 92 | 79 | 64 | 56 |
| Rain (in) | 5.0 | 4.6 | 3.5 | 1.8 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 2.8 | 4.8 |
July is the driest month (0.1 in) and the warmest (highs of 98 °F). 5.0 inches fall in January, the wettest month. Summer highs reach 98 °F, too hot for the outline. The climate in Cottonwood →
Questions about parks and trails in Cottonwood
How much of Cottonwood is conserved land?
under 1% of its land, against a typical 4% for a California town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.
Is there public land near Cottonwood?
7,043 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Cottonwood or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 23 of them inside the town line.
How much outdoors does Cottonwood have?
Ahead of 20% of U.S. towns on the Outdoors grade, #756 of 847 in California. The grade combines the share of land that is conserved, miles of mapped trail per square mile of land, park acres per 1,000 residents and the share of residents within a half mile of a park. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
Trail talk
Conditions, parking and favorite walks from Cottonwood neighbors.
Where this page comes from
Conserved and public land: USGS Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US), service updated July 2026. Parks, trails, playgrounds, beaches and other places: OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), map data as of 2026-10-28. Land and water area: Census 2025 Gazetteer. Residents near a park: 2020 Census blocks. National Register: National Park Service. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →