Cottonwood Trail

The Cottonwood Trail is located in the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve. Please respect the right to ride in this beautiful, protected area. Stay on the trail, and watch for wildlife.

About the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve: At the merging of three great ecosystems, the Mojave Desert, the Great Basin, and the Colorado Plateau, the reserve is biologically rich with an array of animals and plants rarely seen in one place. The reserve contains the most northern populations of the desert tortoise, Gila monster, sidewinder rattlesnake, and chuckwalla - reptiles typically associated with hotter and more southerly deserts, like the Mojave. A significant portion of the shrubs in this area, such as blackbrush, are more commonly associated with the cooler Great Basin Desert. The conditions in the region are such that several endemic species, those which occur no where else in the world, are found here.

The Cottonwood Trail is a 6.5 mile loop trail located off Old Highway 91. You will take a narrow dirt road and under the I-15 Freeway to access the trailhead. Leaving the trailhead, your animal will need to cross over one step over. The 6.5 mile loop heads west out of the parking lot, take the left trail and continue west on the Cottonwood Hills Trail, at the top of the hill the trail will loop back south and connect to the Spanish Wash Trail and then loop north and back to the trailhead on the Prospector Trail.
The trailhead offers plenty of trailer parking and has one pit toilet.