During spring, into summer, my favorite way to start the day, here in New Mexico is to rise before dawn. As I do my morning reading, I have the James Turrell experience of seeing the light first dimly appear over the mountains and gradually change the inky black into a deep blue and finally the lights of the town that were like stars glimmering, are quieted by the hush of the morning dawn. Then I jump in the car and start driving to Abiquiu as the first beams of the sun transform the landscape before me. The whole experience is like watching a Koyaanisqatsi film.
It’s a gorgeous drive and I keep my phone with the map in view, not for the directions, as it’s almost a straight drive north, but to let me know when the speed limit changes! Leaving Santa Fe, I stay in the right lane to let the workers going to Los Alamos zip by me. The other cars on the road are the local trucks who follow the speed limit. And I usually see the police cars strategically placed to pull over the speeding cars. The speed limit varies from 60 to 35 miles an hour and continually changes. And the changes can be surprising. After a long straight road at 45 miles an hour, when the curves start, it changes to 60!
I listen to the BBC driving through Espanola and that plus the views of the New Mexico landscape outside of towns, distracts me – in a good way- from the driving. I’ve never liked to drive, but I look forward to doing this trip in the early morning.
Arriving in Abiquiu, I usually stop at Bode’s gas station and store. They open at 6:30am and I am one of their first customers. I buy one of their delicious oranges and use the bathroom, but I never get gas. It’s usually 40 cents higher than anywhere else, partly because if one lives up there, it’s the only gas station around! I used to buy my gas at the ones I pass on the reservations, because it was cheaper than in Santa Fe - they don’t pay federal taxes. But now with the gas prices rising all over the country, it turns out that it’s in Santa Fe where one finds the least expensive gas prices.
Leaving Abiquiu, I head north again, past Abiquiu lake, and Ghost Ranch (where Georgia O’Keefe had her summer home) to the dirt road that leads to Christ in the Desert monastery. One morning on the highway, I was stopped by a police car who was escorting a group of walkers who completely blocked the other lane. I thought it might be a demonstration but didn’t see any banners. Later that day, I asked at Bode’s what the group was doing and was told that they probably were walking to Chimayo! That’s the pilgrimage walk that many in this part of the country make at Easter time. Chimayo is 32 miles from Abiquiu!
It’s amazing to me how this relatively small part of the country has drawn spiritual seekers. There are two monasteries and a mosque in the Abiquiu area and vast swaths of petroglyphs can be found on the rocks nearby. Mesa Prieta is an organization working to preserve these petroglyphs and when I visited their site, everywhere you turned you’d see these incredible drawings that felt like they had been there forever.
My first spring in New Mexico I was driving to Plaza Blanca to paint. I turned off the main road before arriving at Abiquiu and drove to the dirt road where I put in the code at the gate. That road led to the mosque, but I continued to the second gate that leads to a vista overlooking towering columns of white rock. Following the path down the cliff and entering the “plaza” was like coming into the square at St. Mark’s cathedral in Venice. It was awe inspiring; and I spent the whole season painting there. Although I was alone in the middle of the desert, I felt completely safe, because of those gates.
The following season, I passed Bode’s and worked from Abiquiu lake and the surrounding layered rock cliffs near Ghost Ranch which were equally beautiful in a very different way. The dazzling color of the water against the rock cliffs striped in red, yellow ochre, white and gray is stunning. And the cliffs just by themselves are monuments of glory.
Last fall, I discovered more white rocks off a dirt road and wanted to paint there because there were also yellow trees. But the first time I drove down the road, I saw a lone camper and turned back. But when I returned the next day, the camper was still there, so at a distance, I painted and then left immediately. I spoke to the two dogs who came to see what I was doing but didn’t see their owner. The following day, the camper was still there so I drove past it, to get a different view. And when I had finished painting, three people on horses arrived. They stopped to talk to the lone man in the camper, so it seemed like a good opportunity for me to also say hello, and I found out that he was camping there for a month! Apparently, you can stay anywhere you want on these dirt roads for up to a month! He was building geodesic domes around his camper and taking photos of them at night. So, after making his acquaintance, I felt safe enough to go there regularly to do my own series of work – the yellow leaves contrast wonderfully with those white cliffs.
But this season, I’ve driven a little further north to discover this incredible road to the monastery. I had tried to drive down it twice in my first two years here and turned back because the dirt road was so bad. But finally, this spring I continued past the day lot, down by the stream, and was greeted by vistas that were overwhelming. In fact, they are so beautiful, I never manage to drive the 12 miles to the monastery. I always stop before that to paint!
The colors and shadows are best early morning. And the air is still cold from the night temperatures that when I first started painting there this spring, I wore my down vest over a long-sleeved shirt. Now, though, the sun’s early rays are strong enough to keep me warm in just a sleeveless shirt. And I have to stop, unless I can find shade, by 10:30am. If there’s a breeze, though, that can make all the difference! But the colors also fade as the sun rises.
Still, as I slowly drive out back to the paved road, I see many more vistas that I want to paint!
I don’t look forward to the drive back to Santa Fe but stopping at the lavender farm to get lavender scones, or sometimes at the Abiquiu Inn, where I can access the internet, and eat on their lovely, shaded porch, is a nice respite before starting back. And on the way home, I listen to Schumann, Schubert, Dvorak, or Brahms which lingers in my ears all through the rest of the day, in the same way my experience out in the desert stays with me long after I’ve left it.