The view of Cerro Pedernal that Georgia O'Keeffe saw from Ghost Ranch and painted over 20 times.
Fred descending through Cerro Pedernal's cliff band of basalt and andesite.
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Location: northern New Mexico - Jemez Mountains near Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch - Coyote Ranger District of the Santa Fe National Forest.
Distance/Elevation gain: 8.1 miles/2,000' parking = 8,045' summit = 9,862' Type: Out and back mostly dirt road, single track to cliff band surrounding summit, Class 3 passage through cliff band. Date Hiked: May 15, 2026 Directions to trailhead: From Abiquiu, continue west on US 84 for six miles to turn left onto NM 96 at mile marker 218.2. From Abiquiu Lake Recreation Area, drive 11.5 miles to Forest Road 100, where you see a brown sign and turn left (south). Drive 5.7 miles on FR 100 to a large meadow and road on the left (Temolime Canyon Forest Road 160) on the south side of Cerro Pedernal. You can park your car here and walk about 3 miles up the road to an open meadow at the base of the steep slope near the top Cerro Pedernal or you can drive a high clearance four-wheel drive vehicle to the meadow. High-clearance passenger cars can continue up ~ 0.5 miles at turn-off of FR 160 to more pull-offs on the side. Maps/Apps: AllTrails/Youngsville and Cañones, NM 7.5' USGS Quads Geology: Highly prized by native Americans, Pedernal chert occurs in the Lower Member of the Abiquiu Formation (~ 25 Ma) on the mountain. It's a very durable form of cryptocrystalline quartz used to make arrowheads , spearpoints and scrapers. The rock can fracture into very sharp edges. The top cliffs are andesite and basalt erupted from the northern Jemez volcanic field 8 million years ago. Good Geology article on Cerro Pedernal from New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources. 
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Sue and Fred
Exploration documentaries – "explorumentaries" list trip stats and highlights of each hike or bike ride, and add interesting history or geology. Years ago, I wrote these for friends and family to let them know what my husband, Fred and I were up to on weekends, and also to showcase the incredible land of the west. My favorite websites:
Beyond my Couch Daring Dayhikes Earthline: The American West Glenn Suokko - Vermont Artist MishMoments: Joy of Photography Rangewriter - What Comes Next? Stav Is Lost surgent.net (hiking) |
Not many summits we hike are as special as Cerro Pedernal. Many have made the pilgrimage to this slightly tilted flat-topped pine-and orange sandstone-flanked mountain that cuts a pleasing silhouette in the blue northern New Mexico sky to honor the famous artist Georgia O'Keeffe. It was her favorite; she could see its graceful lines and changing colors from her place in Ghost Ranch, north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. In fact, she once said, "It is my private mountain. It belongs to me. God told me if I painted it enough, I could have it." After she died in 1986, her ashes were spread on its summit.
O' Keeffe painted Cerro Pedernal nearly 30 times in various colors and moods, including at least one depicting Pedernal through the orbit of a horse skull. Her beautiful and colorful paintings of calla lilies, ram, horse and deer skulls, jimson weed, desert landscapes and other natural subjects reveal her love of the American West.
Cerro Pedernal is a spiritual and sacred mountain to various native American cultures, as well as our current culture. Cryptocrystalline quartz was taken from ancient quarries on Pedernal by the Gallina people because it was prized for its durability and could be flaked into particularly sharp edges, important for arrowhead and tool making. Pedernal chert is legendary.
Cerro Pedernal means "flint hill" in Spanish. "Cerro" is a Spanish word for peak, hill or mountain and is frequently used as a descriptor ahead of physical landmark names in New Mexico. Another well-known peak is Cerro Grande, also in the Jemez Mountains.
O'Keeffe is a beloved artist, not only in New Mexico where there is a Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, but internationally. She discovered the majestic New Mexico light in 1929 and went there every summer to paint. She eventually moved to New Mexico permanently, leaving behind New York. Her inspiration was the desert light: "It is not a country of light on things. It is a country of things in light."
I have been a Georgia O'Keeffe fan for over thirty years, so when we decided to visit relatives in Santa Fe, it wasn't hard to put Pedernal and Ghost Ranch's Kitchen Mesa summits on the top of our places to hike list. We got to experience the clear air and blue skies, junipers, and colorful sandstone formations that inspired O'Keeffe.
A painting by Georgia O'Keeffe and a book cover illustrating O'Keeffe's early works on paper.
Cerro Pedernal Hike Summary (8,045' - 9,862')
mile 0 - 1.0: wide gravel road with easy grade heading northeast.
mile 1.0 - 3.3: gravel road gets steeper, heading generally north in zig zags.
mile 3.3 - 3.8: turn right off road in large meadow to ascend cairned trail to Pedernal's southwest cliffs to Class 3 passage through cliff band.
mile 3.8 - 4.0: follow path along narrow ramp to short hike to summit.
We parked ~ 0.2 miles further up Temolime Canyon Road after its intersection with Forest Road 100 adjacent to a wide meadow. We could have driven further up canyon, for there were a few pull-outs and easy gravel road driving for our truck, but we like to walk anyway instead of driving up as far as the truck would go.
The hike up a gentle grade through forest was welcoming; we have had hot weather in St. George, Utah recently and I miss trees. The grade gets steeper with loose rocks as you ascend, passing through pretty meadows. This year 2026 has been such a dry year for the west; the meadow grasses looked yellow and parched, making us feel less than optimistic about this summer fire season.
Views of Pedernal's southwest-facing cliffband appear through the trees at about 1.0 mile into the hike. As the road snakes higher, Pedernal gets closer, a flat top towering over the forest. There's a few minor dirt roads branching off of the main road to Pedernal. I checked my AllTrails tracks a few times.
At ~ 3.3 miles from trailhead parking, just past a large meadow at the base of Pedernal, a cairned trail leads up the west ridge to the cliffband. It is well-marked with cairns and discernible. Arrive at the cliffband on a narrow shelf and look out for the faded white painted arrow and a long tree trunk leaning against the wall, about 3.7 miles. A pile of boulders to stand on reduces the stretch from ground to first foothold.
The Class 3 passage through the andesite/basalt walls is easier going up for me. Fred went first on the way down to help guide my feet to rocks below that I couldn't see. It's a fun little scramble.
Once we got to the summit to look at the numerous register books in a large water-proof box with what seemed hundreds of entries, I realized the Class 3 maneuver wasn't that scary if this many people summited. The summit is long and narrow, it felt like an elevated pedestal - magical. It contains two metal survey markers; one is the triangulation station marker placed in 1961. I wondered if Georgia O'Keeffe ever made it to the summit. Probably not, but her ashes did.
This was a first for us; we had never stood above northern New Mexico looking at its unique land. Each place in the southwest has its unique terrain. Southern Utah has bright oranges and reds in shadowed canyons, cliffs and plateaus with deep green junipers. Tucson has its steep, sharp rocky mountains dotted with saguaros. Northern New Mexico's terrain spills out with softer hues and a feeling of spaciousness, the occasional cerro dotting the landscape.
On the descent, I saw the Pedernal chert that had tumbled from its ledge, scattered on the road and small meadow about 1 1/2 miles from the trailhead. I had missed it in the shadows on the way up. But on the way down, the chert, lit by the sun, glowed with oranges, blacks and grays. It's fun to imagine the Gallina people finding the valuable flint and chert, and how they would have isolated this beautiful cryptocrystalline rock from the sandstone or limestone housing it to make their precise arrowheads and tools.
I couldn't help but feel Georgia O'Keeffe's presence. Her love of New Mexico land and her singular focus on recording its beauty and spaciousness in her paintings. I imagine that she must have felt overwhelmed at times with this love, and of the essence and shapes of nature she effectively depicted in her famous flower detail paintings.
mile 0 - 1.0: wide gravel road with easy grade heading northeast.
mile 1.0 - 3.3: gravel road gets steeper, heading generally north in zig zags.
mile 3.3 - 3.8: turn right off road in large meadow to ascend cairned trail to Pedernal's southwest cliffs to Class 3 passage through cliff band.
mile 3.8 - 4.0: follow path along narrow ramp to short hike to summit.
We parked ~ 0.2 miles further up Temolime Canyon Road after its intersection with Forest Road 100 adjacent to a wide meadow. We could have driven further up canyon, for there were a few pull-outs and easy gravel road driving for our truck, but we like to walk anyway instead of driving up as far as the truck would go.
The hike up a gentle grade through forest was welcoming; we have had hot weather in St. George, Utah recently and I miss trees. The grade gets steeper with loose rocks as you ascend, passing through pretty meadows. This year 2026 has been such a dry year for the west; the meadow grasses looked yellow and parched, making us feel less than optimistic about this summer fire season.
Views of Pedernal's southwest-facing cliffband appear through the trees at about 1.0 mile into the hike. As the road snakes higher, Pedernal gets closer, a flat top towering over the forest. There's a few minor dirt roads branching off of the main road to Pedernal. I checked my AllTrails tracks a few times.
At ~ 3.3 miles from trailhead parking, just past a large meadow at the base of Pedernal, a cairned trail leads up the west ridge to the cliffband. It is well-marked with cairns and discernible. Arrive at the cliffband on a narrow shelf and look out for the faded white painted arrow and a long tree trunk leaning against the wall, about 3.7 miles. A pile of boulders to stand on reduces the stretch from ground to first foothold.
The Class 3 passage through the andesite/basalt walls is easier going up for me. Fred went first on the way down to help guide my feet to rocks below that I couldn't see. It's a fun little scramble.
Once we got to the summit to look at the numerous register books in a large water-proof box with what seemed hundreds of entries, I realized the Class 3 maneuver wasn't that scary if this many people summited. The summit is long and narrow, it felt like an elevated pedestal - magical. It contains two metal survey markers; one is the triangulation station marker placed in 1961. I wondered if Georgia O'Keeffe ever made it to the summit. Probably not, but her ashes did.
This was a first for us; we had never stood above northern New Mexico looking at its unique land. Each place in the southwest has its unique terrain. Southern Utah has bright oranges and reds in shadowed canyons, cliffs and plateaus with deep green junipers. Tucson has its steep, sharp rocky mountains dotted with saguaros. Northern New Mexico's terrain spills out with softer hues and a feeling of spaciousness, the occasional cerro dotting the landscape.
On the descent, I saw the Pedernal chert that had tumbled from its ledge, scattered on the road and small meadow about 1 1/2 miles from the trailhead. I had missed it in the shadows on the way up. But on the way down, the chert, lit by the sun, glowed with oranges, blacks and grays. It's fun to imagine the Gallina people finding the valuable flint and chert, and how they would have isolated this beautiful cryptocrystalline rock from the sandstone or limestone housing it to make their precise arrowheads and tools.
I couldn't help but feel Georgia O'Keeffe's presence. Her love of New Mexico land and her singular focus on recording its beauty and spaciousness in her paintings. I imagine that she must have felt overwhelmed at times with this love, and of the essence and shapes of nature she effectively depicted in her famous flower detail paintings.
Ghost Ranch
We also saw the cottage that O'Keeffe used to live in at Ghost Ranch, which is now a retreat and education center with an artists' residency. What I liked best was the Ruth Hall Museum of Paleontology. Ghost Ranch is a world‐renowned site for Triassic paleontology because it contains three fossil quarries that shed light on how dinosaurs lived 200 million years ago.
We hiked Kitchen Mesa Trail which takes you on some Class 2-3 moves up a cleft of boulders to look over Ghost Ranch and northern New Mexico. I highly recommend this trail, marked with painted old coffee cans that begins near the flats of Ghost Ranch, winds through pinyon and juniper to traverse the side of a beautiful orange canyon, and then climbs an ingenious route through seemingly impenetrable canyon wall.
We've found a new place to explore.
We also saw the cottage that O'Keeffe used to live in at Ghost Ranch, which is now a retreat and education center with an artists' residency. What I liked best was the Ruth Hall Museum of Paleontology. Ghost Ranch is a world‐renowned site for Triassic paleontology because it contains three fossil quarries that shed light on how dinosaurs lived 200 million years ago.
We hiked Kitchen Mesa Trail which takes you on some Class 2-3 moves up a cleft of boulders to look over Ghost Ranch and northern New Mexico. I highly recommend this trail, marked with painted old coffee cans that begins near the flats of Ghost Ranch, winds through pinyon and juniper to traverse the side of a beautiful orange canyon, and then climbs an ingenious route through seemingly impenetrable canyon wall.
We've found a new place to explore.
The Kitchen Mesa Trail at Ghost Ranch which climbs ~ 600 feet from sandy desert floor to sandstone lookout over Ghost Ranch.
Great posters on Geology and Paleontology at Ghost Ranch and this part of New Mexico.
Great posters on Geology and Paleontology at Ghost Ranch and this part of New Mexico.
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The northern side of Cerro Pedernal, the profile that Georgia O'Keeffe loved, near Abiquiu Lake Recreation Area. We will be hiking up the ridge on the right.
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Video of our entrance onto summit of Cerro Pedernal. I posted this on social media with caption, "Pedernal Pilgrimage." I got a lot of comments - I didn't realize how special this mountain was and how beloved Georgia O'Keeffe and her paintings were.
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Driving to the trailhead: Jurassic Entrada Sandstone (yellow cliffs) in "Mushroom" Canyon, ~ 1 mile onto FR 100 from the intersection with NM Highway 96. Pedernal on the left skyline, seeing its northwest side. |
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Heading south in beautiful forest toward Cerro Pedernal's south flank. |
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A turn in the road to the left and the basalt/andesite cliffs of Pedernal getting closer. |
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A few turns in the road later, and it steepens and contains many rolling rocks. |
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A pretty meadow at Pedernal's base. |
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Looking at the ridge on the left we will be climbing - anticipating the cliff weakness that we will get to climb through to the top tier of trees. |
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Cairn on left side of trail that exits the right side of the road near the top of Cerro Pedernal's northwest corner. |
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Looking back at beginning of cairned trail that climbs Pedernal's west ridge from the meadow and road just hiked. |
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Trail to northwest corner of Pedernal approaches the cliff band. |
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Looking back to the northwest from the trail ascent to the cliffband.
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Getting closer to the cliffs! |
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The basalt and andesite cliffs, looking for the passage to the top. |
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A beautiful New Mexico morning on Cerro Pedernal. |
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Class 3 climb at weakness in cliff wall. Faded white arrow next to Fred indicating passage.
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Ramp along upper cliffs after Class 3 passage. |
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Almost at the summit!
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Cerro Pedernal summit is narrow and magical. |
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Cerro Pedernal summit and summit register. The triangle on the brass geodetic survey disc indicates that this was the exact point of a surveyor's plumb-bob. The arrow on the second disc is a reference mark for this triangulation point.
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Soaking in the scene and moment of this beautiful day in New Mexico. |
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From the summit: Abiquiu Lake Recreation Area on the right.
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Climbing down the break in the cliffs. |
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Parting shot of the famous New Mexico summit. |
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Google Earth image of upper portion of Cerro Pedernal hike. North points to top of map.
Our tracks (purple) from parking (lower left) on intersection of FR 100 and Temolime Canyon Road - FR 160 to Cerro Pedernal summit.
North points to top of map.
North points to top of map.
Our tracks in purple. NM 96 in red. US 84 in orange.
North points up.
North points up.
Resources:
Kelley, S.A. Geologic Tour: Cerro Pedernal. New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources - New Mexico Tech (website).
Kelley, S.A. Geologic Tour: Cerro Pedernal. New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources - New Mexico Tech (website).