05/24/2026
For the past few days, the ART288: Art, Culture, & Landscape of the Southwest students have been staying at Ghost Ranch. It is clear why Georgia O’Keeffe fell in love with this landscape and spent decades capturing its beauty and vibrant layers.
Students took tours to view the subjects and sites depicted in O’Keeffe’s paintings. They also hiked through the towering red cliffs and took in the sweeping views at Ghost Ranch.
Every trail felt like walking through a living canvas.
Fun facts:
• Ghost Ranch is one of the world's premier dinosaur graveyards. In 1947, paleontologists found thousands of perfectly preserved Coelophysis skeletons here, dating back 210 million years, making it the official state fossil of New Mexico!
• Georgia O’Keeffe loved Cerro Pedernal, the iconic flat-topped mountain that frames the horizon at Ghost Ranch. She painted it 28 times from her property. She loved it so deeply that when she died in 1986, her ashes were scattered right at the very top of its peak.