Georgia O'keeffe painted it, called it her own, and her ashes were scattered there. She said "God told her that if she painted it often enough she could have it" and Cerro Pedernal is in over a dozen of her paintings. She also had a cassita at Ghost Ranch that had a view of the butte.. Many others have done what she did in painting it like my friend in Colorado who is a native Navajo from New Mexico, Al Livingston. His borrowed painting of Abiquiu Lake with Pedernal dominating the background hung in my house in Calhan, CO. This past December I was very excited when I saw Pedernal for the first time knowing I had the painting on my wall.
We can't see this very special butte from our house because we are so deep in the Rio Chama valley and the mountains to our south block the view. But crossing the road and walking just up the forest service road or driving home from Abiqui you can see it loom in the distance.
Here are just two shots of what we can see from the entrance to Copper Canyon. I will for sure be sharing many more pictures of this feature that dominate the skyline here. The hard part is being at the right spot at the right time. It seems that since I have been here it is usually very hazy or cloudy around the butte and the pictures haven't been very crisp.
