2014
An hour north of Santa Fe sits Cerro Pedernal, known locally as just “Pedernal”, Spanish for “flint hill.” This distinctive 9,862′ narrow mesa sits on the north flank of the Jemez Mountains, south of Abiquiu Lake. Its caprock came from the Jemez Volcanic Field.
Pedernal is the source of chert, a widespread sedimentary rock consisting almost entirely of silica; the most familiar silica mineral is quartz, which was used by the prehistoric Gallina people to make arrowheads and tools.
North of Pedernal and just north of Abiquiu Lake, begins a landscape of vast vistas, table-topped mesas, and tall cliffs with winding rivers bordered by huge old cottonwood trees, which became known as “Georgia O’Keeffe country.”
In 1929 O’Keeffe first began painting part of each year in northern New Mexico. Over the next 20 years she made it her permanent home, as it inspired so many of her paintings, including Pedernal’s distinctive profile; on her death, her ashes were scattered on its top.
As she once said: ‘it is not a country of light on things… but a country of things in light”
