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Because we wanted to explore the life of Georgia O’Keeffe, we paid a visit to Ghost Ranch. It sits on 21,000 acres of gorgeous scenery. The ranch is a short drive from Abiquiu and provides excellent opportunities for outdoor activities.
History
The ranch is part of the Piedra Lumbre (Shining Rock) land grant given to Pedro Martin Serrano by Spanish King Carlos III in 1766. It was also a hiding place for the infamous Archuleta brothers.
Roy Pfaffle won the deed to the ranch in a poker game in 1928. His wife, Carol Stanley, renamed it Ghost Ranch and moved there after their divorce two years later. She created an exclusive ranch that was visited by many wealthy and creative people at that time.
Stanley was having trouble keeping the ranch afloat, so she sold it to American naturalist Arthur Newton Pack (1893-1975) in 1935. When Pack began to age, he worried about the future of the property. In 1955, he donated Ghost Ranch to the Presbyterian Church. They converted it into an education and retreat center and run it to this day.
Visiting
Ghost Ranch offers extended stays and as well as day passes to enjoy the activities and natural beauty. Visitors can take tours, go on guided hikes or trail rides, and visit the museums. There are also numerous retreats of all types scheduled throughout the year.
You can learn about all the activities on the website or by stopping into the Welcome Center. If you’re just visiting for the day, day passes cost US$10 (as of January 2024), and advance reservations are preferred. There are cabins for overnight stays as well as a campground.
Georgia O’Keeffe Cabin
We only had a short amount of time to visit Ghost Ranch, so we got a day pass and took a walk around the grounds near the Welcome Center. We started with the Georgia O’Keeffe Cabin, where the famous artist stayed for the entire summer of 1934 and fell in love with the place.
In 1940, she purchased seven acres and moved there, splitting her time between New York and New Mexico. The area where O’Keeffe lived is off-limits to visitors, but the Walking in O’Keeffe’s Footsteps Tour can take you there. It starts at US$79 per person (as of January 2024). There’s also a shorter version, the Light Walk in O’Keeffe’s Footsteps Tour for US$49 (as of January 2024).
O’Keeffe lovers can also take the O’Keeffe Landscape Tour, which travels to some of the places where she painted her most famous landscapes. It starts at US$39 per person (as of January 2024). Check the activities page for schedules and more info on these and other tours.
Ghost House
Next, we walked through Ghost House, which was built in 1881. Inside are historic photos of Ghost Ranch and a chance to learn about its history.
Ghost House is where you can find the famous ox skull, which became the symbol of the ranch after O’Keeffe painted it.
Agape Worship Center
From there, we walked past the Agape Worship Center, where religious services are held.
Ghost Ranch Library
Next, we popped into the Ghost Ranch Library. It was originally built by Robert Wood Johnson II (1893-1968), of Johnson & Johnson fame, for his family’s stays at the ranch. The home was converted to a library in 1955 and is open 24 hours a day. There are over 12,000 volumes in the collection.
Museums
Finally, we walked back past the Welcome Center and saw the museums from a distance. The Ruth Hall Museum of Paleontology and the Florence Hawley Ellis Museum of Anthropology are both open to visitors daily. A day pass provides access to the museums.
Ghost Ranch is known for its high concentration of Triassic fossils, and has been a very important paleontological site. For this reason, the fossil site became a National Natural Landmark in 1975. To learn more about this subject visitors can take the Paleontology of Ghost Ranch Tour. It starts at US$49 per person (as of January 2024) and lasts about two hours.
Films
Ghost Ranch has been the setting for several feature films and TV shows. Those include Red Dawn (1984), Silverado (1985), City Slickers (1991), Wyatt Earp (1994), 3:10 to Yuma (2007), No Country for Old Men (2007), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), The Lone Ranger (2013), and many more. On the way out of Ghost Ranch, we were able to stop and see the cabin used in the movie City Slickers.
Conclusion
Although we only had a short time to walk through Ghost Ranch and we didn’t even scratch the surface, it gave us a taste of what was to offer. There are some great activities available that I’d love to do on a future trip, especially the trails and learning more about Georgie O’Keeffe.
