Piedra Lumbre, meaning Luminous Stone, is a world in which you’ll find this place- the Rim Vista Trail: an advanced hike of vertical incline gaining roughly 1,700 feet to the flattop of a 230 million-year-old red and yellow plateau. Situated within Carson National Forest, this trail is exceptionally well maintained, clean and pristine, and is coined ‘one of the best hikes for scenery in the state’. And man, no words can describe the views from the top.
We started from Albuquerque from which we headed north to Española on the Big I. We zoomed through this sleepy southwestern city, taking US 84 North to Abiquiu. After a while on this main drag, we eventually passed Lake Abiquiu to our left, and Ghost Ranch to our right. Just 2-3 miles north from Ghost Ranch and also situated on the righthand side of the road is a brown US Forestry sign that reads “FR 151” and which points to a gravel turnoff to the left of the road. We took this gravel turnoff one mile up to the trail road, located to the right, and which is marked with a sign that reads “Trail”. 0.2 miles in, and you’re at the Rim Vista Trailhead, at which you can park right there. The trailhead is blemished with old campfires of past adventurers.
On this clear and dry summer day of 100 plus degree weather, we were able to drive the entire way from the turnoff to the trailhead with a 5 inch clearance vehicle- a 2016 Honda Fit. I would say, on a more wet day, a high clearance vehicle would definitely be necessary.
Along the 5.5 miles of trail, we saw red Wyoming Paintbrush in bloom and dried but aromatic Mountain Mahogany, and in some parts, a ‘living soil’, more commonly known as cryptobiotic crust. This ‘desert glue’ is a sign that the soil is working hard to keep the place in place from erosion by wind and water.
About halfway along the trail, we came upon a dried and dead piñon forest. I learned from a local during a Meetup last summer that many of the large areas of trees in northern New Mexico that are dead and appear stricken by drought are also victims of the pine bark beetle, which has destroyed large swaths of forests in the American West since 2000.
After four hours, we finally summited the plateau where we rested on rock beds of multicolored lichen that overlooked a most magnificent valley in which the Cerro Pedernal reflected in the Abiquiu Lake below. An interesting fact is that the Cerro Pedernal, meaning flint hill, is named after the ancient and pre-Hispanic indigenous Pedernal people who used the area for its chert deposits. Chert can create a spark when struck against an iron-bearing surface and thus was a valuable material for these people and particularly during this time. Oh yeah, Georgia O'Keeffe had her ashes scattered atop the Pedernal as it was the subject to many of her most famous paintings.
To the east, one can see the area of Ghost Ranch at the end of the east Colorado Plateau. Those who study the history of the earth with rock, say it was created via the volatile ebb and flow of the Laramide Orogeny; a controversial study and theory that is said to have formed the Rocky Mountains 70-40 million years ago.
And Ghost Ranch was exactly our next stop.
It's run today by the Presbyterian Church, but Ghost Ranch is the former home and studio of New Mexico’s most famous landscape artist, Ms. Georgia O’Keeffe. And this rocky and canyon landscape that inspired her work, is a vast property of ancient geological history.
This incredible area was once covered by a massive but shallow sea that dated roughly 165 million years ago; to the Jurassic Age. In its path, it left stone faces that literally shine and glitter to this day because of the sediment of quartz in its hardened rock. The property is said to be home to a famous dinosaur quarry where some of the world’s largest dinosaur fossils have been found. The State dinosaur, the Coelophysis, as I learned from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science located in Albuquerque, was a carnivorous creature that roamed this exact area nearly 200 million years ago. In fact, the world’s only complete fossil of the Coelophysis was found here, at Ghost Ranch.
When we made it to Ghost Ranch, it was about 5:30 p.m., but we were just in time to catch grub at the ranch’s dining facility for a solid $10 per person. Hydrated and energized with a high-protein dinner of chicken wing, we hit a short and sweet path called Chimney Rock Trail that spanned about two miles to the top of a strikingly yellow plateau. The hike is a nice incline but mostly flat and perfectly maintained. There aren’t a whole lot of small rocks in the way that could leave you with a twisted ankle if not careful.
Atop the plateau, one overlooks the heart of Georgia O’Keeffe country with breathtaking views across the Pedernal and the Piedra Lumbre basin. The perspective was different from this vantage point, as compared to the Rim Vista Trail, of course, and provided more detail in the many veins of arroyo secos and the lushness of the banks of the Abiquiu. We waited until sundown and caught majestic shots of the golden hour and blue hour, bringing out an entirely different flavor of color to the basin with each ticking minute.
In the summer, the sun sets around 8:30 p.m. and provides enough light for a safe return down the cliff. Ghost Ranch is about $5 admission per person for a day of hiking with about ten different mapped hikes for your choosing.
#quotestoliveby #findyourpark #nationalpark #nature #optoutside #hiking #travel #explore #adventure #roadtrip #wanderlust #outdoors #nationalparkgeek #landscape #mountains #nationalparks #stateparks #keepitwild #summer #picoftheday #thegreatoutdoors #clouds #sunset #sky #beautiful #usa #sonyalphagang #resist #lovenewmexico #newmexicotrue #vistarimtrailhead #travelnewmexico #ghostranch #newmexicobloggers
Σχόλια