North Dakota trails · Cottonwood
Cottonwood
A 7.0-mile out-and-back in North Dakota, with 417 ft of climbing. Managed by the U.S. Forest Service.
Elevation profile
The climbing is spread fairly evenly along the route. It gives back about 626 ft along the way, so it rolls rather than climbing steadily.
3-D terrain
USGS 3DEP ELEVATION × ESRI WORLD IMAGERY · VERTICAL ×1.5
Getting there
BENNET — parking nearby. 47.49047, -103.34998 · directions
Daylight at the trailhead
On August 31, 2026 — the day this page was generated — first light reaches this trailhead at 5:38 a.m., the sun rises at 6:10 a.m. and sets at 7:36 p.m., and the last usable light fades about 8:07 p.m. (MDT) — 13 h 26 min of daylight. At about 2.7 mph plus 30 minutes per 1,000 feet of climbing, the 13.9-mile round trip takes roughly 5 h 34 min, so leaving the trailhead at sunrise puts you back around 11:44 a.m. — 7 h 52 min before sunset.
Loop options
- Cottonwood + Maah Daah Hey + Bennett — 15.3 mi loop, 2,376 ft gain
Nearby trails
- Long X — 4.0 mi
- Summit Trail — 6.0 mi
- Achenbach Trail — 7.1 mi
- Maah Daah Hey — 7.4 mi