The next day, we visited Ghost Ranch, where O'Keefe had a summer home. It's surrounded by dramatic cliffs, and you can see the Pedernal that she painted numerous times. She said that God told her if she painted it enough, he would give it to her.

The open sky, dramatic and ancient cliffs, with mountain ranges in each direction made me have a much better understanding of the Native American sense of Mother Earth. My feet were on the ground, my eyes were on the sky, and the earth all around was stunning. There is a real sense of the way the landscape has been made by glaciers, and that it is continually changing - whether daily or over time, and that my lifetime is less than a blink of the eye in the totality of things. I kept thinking that in this beauty, I could die and truly become part of the universe again.

Ghost Ranch is now owned by the Presbyterian Church, and holds retreats for groups and individuals. It would be a fantastic place for a retreat, or for hiking and meditation.

I'm going to post some photo's, because I think they say it better than words.