Riverlands State Forest
Managed by Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
862 acres1.3 mi of trail
🐕 Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yet
Outdoors in Cotton
Lakes, trails & woods in Cotton
About 14% of Cotton is conserved land, roughly 6,304 acres. There are about 14 miles of mapped trails, and the biggest networks are in Riverlands State Forest (1.3 mi).
Conserved land
14%
6,304 of 45,756 acres
Trails
14 mi
0.2 mi per sq mi
Parks & preserves
2
named on the map
Bike routes
0.0 mi
Lakes & rivers
13
What kind of outdoors town is Cotton?
Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.
This week on the trails
Best day for a walk: Tuesday
67°, mostly sunny, 2% chance of rain.
Tonight59° 39°0% rain
Sat61° 41°40% rain
Sun60° 29°1% rain
Mon61° 39°0% rain
Tue67° 46°2% rain
Wed68° 42°5% rain
The map
Conserved land, trails & bike routes
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it.
Easements protect land from building but are usually private.© OpenStreetMap contributors · USGS PAD-US
★ What stands out · Trails & water
2 named trails and 13 lakes & rivers
Named trails
Unpaved · 2.3 mi
Rose to Strand0.8 mi
Bob Russell Bogwalk0.2 mi
Places to walk
Pick a walk
The longest trail network is Riverlands State Forest, with 1.3 miles. Directions go to the nearest trailhead or public parking.
Cloquet Valley State Forest
Managed by Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
5,999 acres
🐕 Dog rules not recorded
No trailhead mapped yetWebsite ↗
Who protects it
6,304 conserved acres
Who manages Cotton’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.
State natural resources6,121 ac
State fish & wildlife183 ac
State Resource Management Area · 6,121 acState Conservation Area · 183 ac
The biggest protected places
| Place | Managed by | Acres | Public access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miscellaneous State Resource Management Area | State natural resources | 3,109 | Open |
| Cloquet Valley State Forest State Resource Management Area | State natural resources | 3,012 | Open |
| Whiteface River State Aquatic Management Area (St. Louis) State Conservation Area | State fish & wildlife | 183 | Restricted |
Biking & sports
0.0 miles of bike routes
Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.
0.0 mi
painted or protected bike lanes
0.0 mi
off-road bike paths
0.0 mi
shoulders & shared lanes
Courts & fields
1Football
1Baseball
Includes school and college facilities, which aren’t always open to the public.
Next door
Cotton and its neighbors
Cotton has the second most mapped trails of the 4 towns around it. Tap a town to see its outdoors.
Trail talk
Conditions, parking and favorite walks from Cotton neighbors.
Weigh in
Is Riverlands State Forest the best walk in Cotton?
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Share a tip
Trails, parks, preserves, courts and bike lanes © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), map data as of 2026-09-28. Conserved land: USGS Gap Analysis Project, PAD-US. Measured against the Census town boundary. Forecast: National Weather Service.
How we measure
"Trails" are OpenStreetMap paths, bridleways, public tracks and unpaved footways, plus footways inside a park or preserve or on a named trail route. Sidewalks are left out. Areas are counted on a 27.4-meter grid, so overlapping parcels count once. "Conserved" includes conservation easements, which protect land from development but are usually private property. Trailheads are the nearest marked trailhead, public parking lot or information board within about 150 meters of a preserve. Dog rules come from OpenStreetMap when someone has tagged them; otherwise we show what’s typical for the land manager, or say the rules aren’t recorded.