Cottonwood Recreation Area — Attraction in Utica South Township

This is a great campground by the Corps of Engineers. It has around 50 sites that sit beside quiet Lake Yankton (No power boats, just electric or muscle power). It has easy access to boat ramps on both the river below the dam and the lake above. We had site 29, right inside of the entrance. Surprise to us it had FULL hook ups, including 50 amp power. There may be only 2 such sites on the grounds. Most have no water, but a number of hydrants are scattered around the area. Site is VERY well maintained with a crew that cleans restrooms and grounds multiple times per day. It is a flat. easy walk from the grounds to the dam down a paved road with quite light traffic and a wide shoulder. People seem to be fishing from the overlook nearly anytime of day. This location is well shaded with hundreds of huge cottonwood trees throughout the grounds. Each RV site is paved and has a large crushed rock sitting area right outside your door, with a nice aluminum picnic table and fire ring included. The space is quiet and not near any busy roads. If the spillways are open at the dam you can often hear the distant rush of the water. I highly recommend it, just be prepared to use your fresh water tank. Dump stations are easily reached about a mile...

This is a beautiful campground. We stayed here in our travel trailer a few years ago for 3-4 days and loved it, so this time we booked 2 weeks. Big mistake. The only dump station and fresh water are over a mile away, so we can't easily refill our fresh water tank, and we can't use our sewer tote to dump. We just arrived last night and are already planning to cut our visit short and stay in an RV park for the second week. Otherwise we will have to pack up and drive our trailer to the dump/water area every 4-5 days even showering in the bath house. So discouraged 😞

Update 6/10/25: We decided to bite the bullet and not move to an RV park, since they are a bit pricey here. We managed to go 8 days before having to pack up and dump and refill water tank. It was a major hassle, but we won't have to do it again until we leave. The showers are nice with plenty of hot water, so I...

My husband and I got there around 9 o’clock at night, we had a blow out on our tire and it turned at 14 hour day into a 16 hour day in the car. We called to let them know we wouldn’t be there till then and they let the host know. At this park you check in with the camp host. We knocked on their door and the gentleman was so nice, he understood and just reassured us that we made it and just go in and get some sleep. The site was very large and it was covered in pea gravel. It had a nice metal table and a fire pit with a grill on it. We were right on the lake and we were able to see a beautiful sunset. Woke up early and got to a beautiful sunrise and a double rainbow. The bathrooms were nice and clean. It looked like there was a lot to do in the park for recreation use. Wish we would’ve stayed...