Tuesday, December 22, 2009 - Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu NM

Crosshatch, Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu NM, December 22, 2009

"You know I never feel at home in the East like I do out here and finally feeling in the right place again I feel like myself and I like it . . . Out the very large window to rich green alfalfa fields-then the sage brush and beyond-a most perfect mountain-it makes me feel like flying-and I don't care what becomes of art." - Georgia O'Keeffe, in a letter to Henry McBride, 1929

Ghost Ranch is the most photogenic spot I've been in in a long while. I drove through Abiquiu on a road trip back on April 5, 2006 and I somehow forgot just how gorgeous the scenery is here. Driving US 84 through the valley is beautiful in itself but getting up close and personal with the multicolored rock formations here is something else entirely. It's no wonder Georgia O'Keeffe was so at home here. Kate spent the whole morning giving me a photo-op tour of a tiny portion of the 21,000 acre Ghost Ranch and the Conference Center. It's no wonder she and Terry are so in love with this place.

Night camp

Ghost Ranch Campground, Abiquiu NM

This is a basic, small campground with full hookups.
Verizon cell phone and Broadband service are not available here.
Locate Ghost Ranch on my Night Camps map
Check the weather here

We Are Clearly a Species Worth Saving

Our world is entering a time of profound and perhaps catastrophic change. My hope is that by getting people to care about and learn about what is in their backyard, they can be made to realize that while it seems like we are destroying the planet in out greed and excess, what we are really destroying is ourselves. The planet and life in general has dealt with catastrophe many times before. Cataclysm on Earth is a creative time and evolution can handle it. Culture is much more fragile and we as individuals are more fragile still. I think that it is time for people to come to terms with the fact that our own behaviors put humanity at risk. While people have always done atrocious things, I believe that we are a species capable of beautiful, amazing and important things as well and we are clearly a species worth saving.

Jon Piasecki

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