my travels in pixels

Cottonwood Campground in Canyon de Chelly National Monument, AZ Chinle, AZ One of the larger sites Check with the visitor centre on arrival as they have ranger programs and a free walking tour. There is only one walk to the White House Ruins that you can do on your own. The other options are private walking tours, 4WD tours or horse trail tours Why we chose here? There are only two campgrounds in Canyon de Chelly (pronounced shay), one near the visitor centre - Cottonwood and another – Spider Rock, a fair way in on the south rim. Location: Drive to Chinle, AZ, then drive east. Coming out from the visitors centre, turn right, then turn right, then the campground will be on your left. Sites: 92. Up to 35’. Most of the sites are difficult to get in to if you are large. The entries seem to be in the opposite direction than you are supposed to be driving. Lots of small sites. There is a dump, but no water in winter – they take the hoses away. There is only one tap in th...

Canyon de Chelly National Park, Arizona When we arrived in Canyon de Chelly (d’shay) two weeks ago there had been a ranger talk that night and a ranger walk the next day, but because we couldn’t drive our truck we missed out on both of them. Now the next ranger walks are not for two weeks due to staff shortages, so we miss out again. This national monument is on Navajo reservation land and observes daylight saving while the rest of Arizona does not. So we were a bit confused as to the right time to see sunrise and sunset. My photography app showed nearby towns with and a different current time and a different time for sunrise and sunset to what we had been told. Reality was somewhere in between. People have lived here for over 5,000 years. The current inhabitants are the Navajo, who first arrived in 1700 only to be captured or killed before or during the long 300 mile walk of 1863 when the land now known as Arizona and New Mexico was taken from the Mexicans and became part of...