Ghost Ranch + Abiquiu Landscapes Day Tour from Santa Fe
Step Into the Art and Onto the Set
Stand where painters and filmmakers found their muse, in a wild stretch of northern New Mexico where red rock gives way to ghostly white cliffs.
Tour overview
Stand where painters and filmmakers found their muse, in a wild stretch of northern New Mexico where red rock gives way to ghostly white cliffs. We handle the long miles and hidden turnoffs, so you can take in both Ghost Ranch and Plaza Blanca in a single, seamless day.
An hour from Santa Fe, the landscape begins to shift into something otherworldly. This is the country that drew Georgia O'Keeffe for the last half of her life, and through her, photographers like Ansel Adams, along with a long line of filmmakers chasing its impossible color and light. It is also remote and easy to get turned around in, which is exactly why we drive the long miles and hidden turnoffs, so you can spend the day inside the scenery rather than navigating it.
At Ghost Ranch, a 21,000-acre expanse on the edge of the Colorado Plateau, you take in the sweeping formations and the afternoon light as it sets the ribbons of Entrada sandstone aglow. Then the palette flips at Plaza Blanca, the White Place, a protected landscape of towering white sandstone spires rising over the Chama River valley. Its geology tells a staggering story, volcanic pyroclastic flows and a time when all of this was ocean floor, and O'Keeffe made it famous in her "White Place" paintings.
In between, the day slows down for a gourmet lunch on the sunny patio at Café Abiquiú, and a stop at the Bosshard Gallery, once the original Bode's Mercantile and now home to a fine collection of Indigenous textiles, jewelry, and ceramics. It is a day that trades gallery walls for the real thing, and sends you home seeing the Southwest the way its artists always have.
Tour highlights
Ghost Ranch, a 21,000-acre expanse on the Colorado Plateau, aglow with Entrada sandstone
Plaza Blanca, the towering white sandstone spires of O'Keeffe's "White Palace" series
The landscapes and film sets that drew O'Keeffe, Ansel Adams, and Hollywood
A gourmet lunch on the patio at Café Abiquiú
The Bosshard Gallery, with its Indigenous textiles, jewelry, and ceramics
All the long miles and remote navigation handled for you
Itinerary
Go Where the Artists Found Their Muse
Explore the sweeping red-rock formations of Ghost Ranch, the 21,000-acre landscape that drew Georgia O’Keeffe, Ansel Adams, and generations of filmmakers into northern New Mexico.
O’Keeffe’s New Mexico
Stand among the towering white sandstone spires of Plaza Blanca, the landscape O’Keeffe immortalized in her “White Place” paintings, then slow down over lunch and local art in Abiquiú.
Tour photographs
Practical details
Meeting point
H.I. Travel Hub - Inn & Spa at Loretto
211 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, NM 87501
Included
- Guide
- transport
- gourmet lunch at Café Abiquiú
- Bosshard Gallery visit
- Plaza Blanca entry
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Price, schedule, and availability are confirmed at booking.