Road to Pedernal
Above is my most current image from a series I call “Road to Pedernal.” The sun highlighting Highway 96 seems to lead one to Pedernal, and black and white seemed the best way to have the viewer focus on the road and the peak. Highway 96 passes Abiquiu Dam as it heads west toward Cuba and Farmington, New Mexico. It's one of the favorite routes people take from Santa Fe when they are heading to the Bisti Badlands and Chaco Canyon.
Cerro Pedernal draws my eyes whenever I pass by or approach, hence the series.
Cerro Pedernal is 9,862 feet high. It is located a bit north and west of the village of Abiquiú, New Mexico.
I pass it often and it offers an ever-changing vista, which always keeps me interested. Depending upon your vantage point, its top appears as a plateau, the view one of my grandsons refers to as “the volcano,” and at other times, a pointed peak. It shows its various personalities in bright sunlight, covered with snow or peeking through low-lying fog or clouds.
Pedernal means flint in Spanish, and this flat-topped butte in northern New Mexico has long been a source of agate. Natives living nearby during the Pueblo Period (1303-1324 AD) used Pedernal’s stone for arrowheads, scrapers, knives, and spear points.
Today, the butte is a well-known landmark in the northern Jemez Mountains, and gained further notoriety when artist Georgia O’Keefe lived nearby and painted the peak. It is a popular subject for photographers and artists.
Cerro Pedernal draws my eyes whenever I pass by or approach, hence the series.
Cerro Pedernal is 9,862 feet high. It is located a bit north and west of the village of Abiquiú, New Mexico.
I pass it often and it offers an ever-changing vista, which always keeps me interested. Depending upon your vantage point, its top appears as a plateau, the view one of my grandsons refers to as “the volcano,” and at other times, a pointed peak. It shows its various personalities in bright sunlight, covered with snow or peeking through low-lying fog or clouds.
Pedernal means flint in Spanish, and this flat-topped butte in northern New Mexico has long been a source of agate. Natives living nearby during the Pueblo Period (1303-1324 AD) used Pedernal’s stone for arrowheads, scrapers, knives, and spear points.
Today, the butte is a well-known landmark in the northern Jemez Mountains, and gained further notoriety when artist Georgia O’Keefe lived nearby and painted the peak. It is a popular subject for photographers and artists.
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To contact Bob Eckert for assignments, consultations or workshops, please email bobeckertphotography@yahoo.com
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