Ghost Ranch
A RETREAT IN GEORGIA O’KEEFFE’S LANDSCAPE
Read time 4 mins
In 1934, an artist rented a small house on a ranch in the Valley of the Shining Stone, in the Piedra Lumbre Basin in New Mexico. Every morning, she would leave her adobe ranch house at dawn, and venture into the red hills in search of paintings. She painted with long, continuous brushstrokes, rejecting perspective, reducing detail – developing a visionary language that would see her recognised as one the most significant artists of the Twentieth Century.
Ghost Ranch, with its high altitude, dry climate, and crystalline light is an easy place to fall in love with, just as Georgia O’Keeffe did when she first saw it:
“I feel at home here–I feel quiet–my skin feels close to the earth when I walk out into the red hills”.
Stay at one of the lodges and you can walk out into those red hills to savour the astonishing colours of the landscape: the smoked-chilli red of the rocks and the grey-gold of the prairie grasses as they flicker against the New Mexico skies.
There are marked trails that will take you to views that you will recognise from her paintings: such as the chimney rock formations, eroded from a cliff of Jurassic sandstone, that became The Cliff Chimneys, and the crenelations and contours of the frosted peak which became Hill, New Mexico.
Since 1955, Ghost Ranch has been run by the Presbyterian Church, who extend visitors a warm welcome. You take a tour ($40) of Georgia O’Keeffe’s mid–century modernist house, stay in one of the lodges, or spend your nights under canvas in the desert as I did.
The ranch hosts workshops, outdoor activities and retreats every year. There is a swimming pool, and a well–stocked library where Ansel Adams once played the piano in for Georgia O’Keeffe.
Ghost Ranch is a wonderful place to relax for a few days and soak up the ‘place power’ that inspired Georgia O’Keeffe’s iconic paintings. I met people who call it ‘the best place on earth’ and come back every year.
Photography notes: Rolleiflex film and iPhone imagesPRACTICALITIES
Ghost Ranch is located 65 miles northwest of Santa Fe, on U.S. 84 between mile markers 224 and 225.
Tours are available Georgia O’Keeffe’s mid-century modernist home, although I thought they were pricey and you are not allowed to take photographs of the interior.
Accommodation ranges from private retreat houses to dormitories, all in the adobe style. Book well in advance.
Campsites are nestled in a canyon surrounded by red rocks. Most sites have a table and a fire ring and some have shade. There is a bathhouse equipped with an ice machine, shared refrigerator, showers, sinks, and laundry. I turned up on the day in summer and found space available on the campsite. Prices are reasonable.
A good value buffet dinner is served every night in the communal hall (optional for campers)
Full details on the Ghost Ranch Website
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