Cottonwood Campground

Camping Fees - Cash only
• $14.00/night (up to 7 people/site)

Group Site Rules
• 2 Group Sites available.
• Fee is $50/night/group site (14-30 people).
• Group camping is for 14 to 50 people.
• Group sites are for tent camping only, and require reservations.
• Reservations cannot be made more than 30 days in advance.

Reflecting one of the longest continuously inhabited landscapes of North America, the cultural resources of Canyon de Chelly--including distinctive architecture, artifacts, and rock imagery--exhibit remarkable preservational integrity that provides outstanding opportunities for study and contemplation. Canyon de Chelly also sustains a living community of Navajo people, who are connected to a landscape of great historical and spiritual significance--a landscape composed of places infused with collective memory. Canyon de Chelly is unique among National Park service units, as it is comprised entirely of Navajo Tribal Trust Land that remains home to the canyon community. NPS works in partnership with the Navajo Nation to manage park resources and sustain the living Navajo community.

The only reason why I didn't give this campsite a 5 was because they are doing works just up the river from the campground which ends the main walking trail. From memory, they should be finished in April 2018.

We initially drove up to Navajo Dam and took a look around the campground at the top. It was windy and cold with nowhere to really walk around, sites were really close together, but had some had absolute stunning views.

The Cottonwood campground is SO lovely with the cottonwood trees and San Juan River running past with people fishing. Sites are well spaced, clean and quite private depending on the site you choose. There are two toilet facilities, however only one is in use for the Winter period. No showers. No hookups down here. There was a sign to be aware of a Bear! But one never knocked on our door so we are not sure how old the sign was.

Dirt road drive from main road is quite rough, be prepared but worth it. No phone signal with T-Mobile.

Pros: Lots of shade, clean, water and electric hook ups with dump station on the way out. Great AT&T cell service. Water toilets.

Cons: No shower facilities. Dump area is tight for bigger rigs. Dirt washboard road to park entrance.

This state park is clean, quiet, and very affordable, and seems to be a favorite weekend destination for locals. It was barely half full during the week during our visit but full on weekends. The main activity here is fishing, either in the San Juan River or at Navajo Lake above the dam. Note that the drive from this campground up to the lake portion is around 10 miles. This is also probably a prime birdwatching location. Our site was level, utilities (electric + water) worked well, and site separation was adequate though not exceptional. One thing we really enjoyed was the blazing fast AT&T service (Download 44.62 Mbps, Upload 5.68 Mbps). It helps being able to see the tower, I suppose.

The sites on the eastern end of the loop (roughly sites 8 through 29) have many more trees, which would be great for shade in the summer even if the cottonwoods have a tendency to drop sap. None of the campground sites really have a river view, though some have footpaths to walk down to the river. The best river access is in the day use area around the corner from the campground.

Reasons for less than 5 stars:
- No showers (though there are flush toilets)
- No meaningful trails in the vicinity despite lots of public land. The Simon Canyon trail is a few miles further down the dirt access road, but the trail is only 0.8 miles each direction. The San Juan River trail at the same trailhead was overgrown and barely usable when we visited.
- Road in from 173 is unpaved for 2 miles and in pretty rough shape.
- Significant drive back to Aztec for gas and groceries (come prepared)

We made reservations at three different New Mexico State Parks and spent a total of $56 dollars through Reserve America this fall. We had planned to stay at three different parks during the month of October, and made our reservations in mid-July. We made these reservations in good faith, and found out later the State had closed Parks to out of state visitors, with an order that was eventually extended affected our reservations. The State of New Mexico canceled our reservations (we had no intention of cancelling) and ended up charging us a 50% cancellation fee and refunding the remaining $28. There reason for withholding 50% is due to a Reserve America transaction fee. But Reserve America is serving as New Mexico’s agent so its the same as the State Parks taking the money. $28 isn’t much money, neither is the $56 dollars but its the principle of it. Through no fault of ours, New Mexico has collected $28 dollars from us for doing absolutely nothing. No credit issued, no apology. We love NM State Parks but will certainly think twice before ever planning to stay in one again since they seem more interested in our money than developing long term relationships

Clean, nice, campground. Easy walking to the River. The only ding would be no showers in the restrooms. Do not expect WiFi or good cell service for data. Comes with the territory. Really rough dirt road for about 1.5 miles to access this campground.

Clean, nice, campground. Easy walking to the River. The only ding would be no showers in the restrooms. Do not expect WiFi or good cell service for data. Comes with the territory. Really rough dirt road for about 1.5 miles to access this campground.

easy back in sites - 5 min walk to river - take 173 out of Aztec to avoid white knuckle cliff drive on 539 - dirt road coming in washboard not bad just take your time - at&t streaming 3 bar

Arrival - super easy when booked online.

Better experience - if your rig is smaller and you're there to fish, stay at the lake in one of their campgrounds. If you are a fly fisherman, couldn't ask for a better location.

Favorite thing - Location

Least favorite - overall condition of the campground, lots of trash and utilities need repairing.

Super great location for the fisherman for sure. We were right off the river so, river access was easy. Took us about 20 minutes to get to the lake for lake fishing. The fishing was good for small mouth at the lake, never caught anything on the river but, they are gold medal waters.

One small gas station and fishing equipment store was open.

Very hot, day time temps in the high 90's to low 100's. 30 amp service but, we were able to run both of our AC's. Water at site, dump station at entrance. Day use fees of $5 required for each day of fishing; the Rangers were thick! Wi-fi available at campground for purchase.

Lakeside, lots of trash and water level is down which allowed for access to deeper holes that wouldn't be able to be accessed regularly.

Great site to take the kids for simple lake fishing. The stars were amazing as well.