Wild Horses, A Canticle in Echo Amphitheater, Ghost Ranch, and Dar el Islam with the White Place

371 miles of fun today. As I write this, I am pretty well whacked out.

Highlights: Wild horses in Carson Wilderness.  Singing a spontaneous canticle for the healing of our planet in natural Echo Amphitheater. A quick tour of Ghost Ranch where Georgia O’Keefe lived while painting many of her stellar landscapes. A peek inside Dar el Islam Mosque outside of Abiquiu after being invited inside and given the code to access Plaza Azul, a very sacred place.

First the horses.

After driving west of Taos on Hwy 64  past the bridge of suicides, past the Earthship Community (where Lynn and I stayed with friends fifteen years ago), past Tres Piedras where travel trailers apparently go to die, and up into Carson wilderness, I rounded a corner to discover this small band of wild horses licking the road. 

Why were they licking the road?

Because the road had been salted to melt ice and horses need salt.

These are genuine Grulla mustangs, descended from the Spanish horses which first escaped in America.  You can tell by the mousey dun color, plus they are small. Also, so thin.

I stopped in the roadway, hating to interrupt their salt orgy, hoping they’d just step out of the way so I could pass. But the stallion turned to face me, threw his head up, curled his lip in warning,

protected his his mares and young ones until they made their way to the side.

This is a horse sighting highlight for me.  Discovering grulla mustangs in the wild is not something that happens  every day.

I drove up, up, and up some more, rounded many hair pin turns. This seems to be a feature of NM Highway 64.  There were no other cars or trucks on the road. It was a beautiful drive through a forest of aspen, pine, and fir. Here’s a pretty little grove someone felt they needed to use to send a message

 

Echo Amphitheater

A couple of hours later, I entered the canyons and came upon this amazing feature.        

This is Echo Amphitheate. It’s about four miles northwest of Ghost Ranch. I hiked up into it,

taking my time because the energy

is very powerful.

When I at last stood facing the echo chamber, I began singing. ( looking up inside the bowl)

A haunting melody just seemed to flow from me. No words, vowel sounds and ahhhh’s. It was a canticle.  As the force driving me wound down, I stood and listened to the final notes bounce across the walls.

I felt driven to voice a prayer for the healing of our planet, all beings which live upon and within it.

Interestingly, when I returned to home base in Taos, I read that in 1864, during the long, forced walk to Bosque Redondo as part of the Indian Relocation Act, the US Calvary killed ten Navaho men at the top of that Amphitheater.

Those who survived reported their blood spilled down the wall, staining the rock forever. If you  look at this photo,

                                                                 you clearly see the stains.

 It is said the echoes and songs which bounce throughout the cliff’s walls carry the anguish of the murdered men.

 

Ghost Ranch

Ten minutes after the canticle, I came to the famed Ghost Ranch.

130 million years of ancient geology created the spectacular cliffs, canyons, mesas, and valleys of this 21,000 acre ranch, owned now by a Presbyterian  land trust created through the generosity of Phoebe and Arthur Peck in 1955 because they  wanted to preserve it for future generations.

Ghost Ranch was, of course, home first to indigenous peoples. First the Paleo cultures of the Chama Valley, then Ute, Navaho, Apache, and Pueblo.  The tribes fought with one another throughout the years for control of the resources, often  taking slaves for trade and personal use. However, the European advance was soon upon them. Despite valiant, strong resistance, the native cultures which once dominated became supplanted.

When the Spanish conquered New Mexico in 1766, King Charles the Third, gave a generous land grant of 50,000 acres to Lieutenant Pedro Martin Serrano to reward him for his brilliance in the conquering campaign. This land became known as Piedra Lumbre (shining rock).

Generations later, Ghost Ranch, which was then known as El Rancho de los Brujos (the Valley the Witches), not due to a colony of Wyrd Sisters, but because cattle thieves used to drive stolen cattle into the canyons where they were so beautifully hidden, they were not discovered, experienced a name change when witch somehow morphed into ghost.  It also ended up with the majority of Piedra Lumbre being transferred into wealthy anglo ownership.

There are a few small ranches and homesteads remaining in the area.

Plus, a very interesting Benedictine Abbey, The Monastery of Christ in the Desert, is just across the road. The Monks living a contemplative life there believe that everyone is called upon to be a Saint, and that we each deserve to be accepted as both Other and Different, but embraced fully regardless of our differences.  They welcome serious seekers wishing a personal retreat of silence and reflection within the magic of the canyon lands.

Georgia O’Keeefe was so smitten by the scenery, with its constantly changing light, that she convinced the Peck’s to sell her six acres, where she lived in a small cabin, spending  her days and evenings paintings. She was well supported financially, allowing art to bcome her full time vocation.

The Ghost Ranch is now a retreat center with museums on site. There is also a campground and lodgings for non-retreatants. I noticed a corral with some  weary looking horses available for trail rides through the canyon.

It is a stunning landscape    

which is, of course, why one visits.

Painting,  photography, and writing workshops, with even occasional paleontology gatherings, fill the schedule.

It all felt quite commercialized to me, though. The vibe seemed to be people in expensive hiking gear taking in the sights.

There is a gift shop which feels like the same slightly cheesy gift shop you find in any nature resort—big on overpriced western straw hats, sweatshirts sporting Ghost Ranch logo on the chest, O’Keefe books alongside a few bird, tree, kids books. Plenty of snack foods for purchase.

I did check out the café and was impressed with their salad selection. Some home made chocolate chunk cookies looked delicious, but I managed to abstain.

 I was in and out of the Ghost Ranch in 45 minutes. If I could have gotten into the back country, that would have been amazing, but the tours are pricey and time limited, so I continued on my own little tour through the land.

 I managed to capture a few photographs from the road after I left.

Onward to Abiquiu, a pretty little community where the Abiquiu River keeps things looking fertile. I learned that after O’keefe’s husband/financier, Alfred Stieglitz, died, she moved out of Ghost Ranch and into Abiquiu, where she lived until her late 80’s. She eventually moved to Santa Fe, where she died at the very ripe age of 98.

I confess to having a framed, limited edition print of one of lesser known sunrises over the canyon on my living room wall at home.

 

Dar el Islam and Plaza Blanca

I, however, began  looking for the hidden road to Dar el Islam,

where a beautiful mosque and madrasa (religious school) was built in 1981 by the famous Egyptian architect, Hassan Fathy.

It was his final masterpiece–he died one year later.

The buildings were all constructed of adobe by a team of Naqshbandi Haqqani Sufi Order builders.

   inside, where I was invited to have a peek Very cozy, very nice.

 According to Raafat Ludin, the very nice Executive Director who greeted me and gave me the precious access code to Plaza Blanca (why I was there), it is the largest adobe structure in the United State. When I fact checked this later, I discovered that is not exactly true.  The Islamic Center in Dearborn, Michigan is actually the largest mosque. And I believe, having visited,  that Taos Pueblo is considerably larger than Dar el Islam.

Still, it is a fantastic complex.

The location was selected for its proximity to a highly spiritual land form known as Plaza Azul, or The White Place.

Not open to the general public; one must register, then request and hope to receive an access code to the gate.

They take their stewardship of this land seriously.

The rare white sandstone formations are hardened volcanic debris, the result of explosions within the Jemez Mountains, waaaay back when, somewhere between 17 and 27 million years ago.

There are about two miles of formation

n,

with numerous slot and box canyons  and pillars.

 

 However, it was 82 degrees by the time I arrived. As a result of the traumatic head injury I sustained at twelve, my body thermostat doesn’t work properly. I don’t cool down like a “normal” person.

I lasted eighty minutes before needing to  turn back, seeking shade the whole way.

Next time, I’ll drive the day before and do my hike in the early morning.

It’s a special place, worth the long journey to get there.