Evening of March 8 and March 9, 2025 Cottonwood Campground
We knew we were dry camping at Cottonwood. As you know…we have dry camped probably enough times to count on both hands, however, we have never dry camped in 27 degree weather or any time we actually needed heat. Mind you…we also sprang ahead with our time Saturday evening.
About five in the morning, I woke up with our refrigerator off, the furnace off, lights off…we had run our battery down and it was 32 degrees in the camper. I woke Harry and since we had stayed hooked up to the truck, he sat in the truck and charged our camper battery. We ended up having a very short night of rest but with the morning came the sun and it warmed up our camper very quickly, at least enough to have breakfast and watch our church service on my iPad. We were excited to watch our friend Alf Nelson join the ministerial staff of Grace Fellowship!
We met Ila at 1:00 to take us on a Jeep trip through Canyon de Chelley. She actually lives 3/4 of her year inside the canyon. She is Navajo and was very knowledgeable about both the history of the canyon and included what it was like to grow up Navajo here.
We drove through sloggy sand, deep puddles and snow!
Another cliff dwelling. Ila says they probable housed 5 to 6 families.
At the end of our trip, we passed some native runners. First we passed Ila’s grandmother who is 75 (pictured below), then we passed her sister, running barefoot, and finally her uncle, who is also as old or older than his sister. Just out running! Pretty cool!
Although we were planning on staying here at Cottonwood for another day and night, we decided we needed to find an electrical hook-up for the night. We did not want a repeat of Saturday evening! So here is where we stayed!
hkdorr 