Abiquiu

   Leaving Pecos, we drove north, looking for beauty while it warms up and we can visit Chaco, where it is too cold now. The wind picked up and we headed for the area where Georgia O’Keefe lived and painted much of her life. We hoped we would find a park, nothing in any of our books. There were times when the RV was pushed 3 feet to the side by the wind. Finally we heard of a federal park on the Abiquiu Reservoir. As we climbed the hill we expected flat land with a parking lot for camping. We crested the hill and a view that I would think I would see at the Grand Canyon appeared. Far in the distance, all the way around the huge water, were carved cliffs in the side of the mountains of red, white, light and dark green rock with trees higher and lower leading up to the water. Only the park host was there and had just showed up an hour ago. The park wasn’t open for weeks, so he couldn’t take our money and a few sites even had electric. We chose the miracle site, on a cliff over looking the red rock at our feet and dropping a hundred feet to the water with Padernal Mountain to our left. This is the Mountain at O’Keefe’s front door, which she painted often. Ghost Ranch, her compound, is just up the road.

      We stayed 2 nights at Abiquiu, cold, but not the 14 we heard was at Chaco. (We made the right decision.) The road from Abiquiu to Chaco is a blessing and a curse. The first half is across some of the most beautiful country we have seen. Mountains and hills of a dozen colors, one hill side was steep and worn and red with rock and dust, but it was also dotted with so many green cedar trees that the effect was almost another color. This road ended and so did the stunning beauty. It flattened out and rode on for another hour. Finally we found the road to Chaco. After 8 miles of pavement, the dirt road started. We had heard of the 13 miles of wash-boarded road and at first it was not too bad. It was a long hour of between 5 and 35 mph we reached the national park.