Plaza Blanca, or the ‘white place’, rests protected and guarded in a valley of the Rio Chama hills.  Made famous by a 1940 painting by Georgia O’Keeffe, the sense inside the walls and spires of white sandstone is that it’s been long forgotten; so lonely that it whispers to itself for company. And for the pleasure of an experience like that on a planet with nearly 7 Billion people, the short trek is well worth it.

Plaza Blanca late day

Having hiked in 3 times during the Abiquiu road trip, if you’re wanting to photograph this place, late afternoon presents the most dramatic lighting.

Plaza Blanca, The White Place. Taken at 5:48 pm in November.

Plaza Blanca. Taken late in the day, mid November.

Not that a morning hike can’t yield something worthwhile… they just take a little more work in the darkroom.

Plaza Blanca in the morning, 9:06 am.

Plaza Blanca taken at 8:31 am, mid November.

Plaza Blanca in the morning.

Now that I see my photos side by side, forget what I said earlier about late afternoon. You can’t go too early or the sun won’t have crested the horizon enough to light the area. Same goes with evening – too late and it’s all shadow.

Carry a small backpack and water. Don’t take too much photography gear else you’ll miss the point of the place.  Which is something you’ll figure out once in there (the important thing to know is that there IS a point).  Me – I thought about dying in there and the tragedy of missing out on another Bode’s green chili cheeseburger but quickly jumped to how hard it is to fix our shortcomings but we can do a darn good job with well placed patches, that my camera gear was a burden, how interesting the miniature spires mimicking the big ones were and that several phallic symbols were prominent, the footprints I keep seeing could be God’s, yikes is that a coyote, look at the rabbit, I need to see the eye doctor when I get home, cursing how hard the rocks are as I lie back while the sun warmed my face and the air tickled my hair, the camera gear forgotten, death replaced by life, tears at the beauty, solitude whispers, the peace and quiet everywhere, including my head.

Plaza Peace

Other New Mexico related posts in this series:

The Abiquiu Inn

Abiquiu – The Penitente Morada

Abiquiu – Plaza Blanca

Abiquiu – The Dar al Islam Mosque

Abiquiu

The Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail

New Mexico Travel Sites:

Hatch Chile Festival – September 3,4, 2011

New Mexico Tourism

Where to buy hatch chiles

Join the Road Trip Revolution at the Solo Road Trip Facebook Fan Page, here.

The dirt road ripped over time by alternate acceleration and braking was so unrelentingly jarring, the truck protested like a child denied candy in the check out line.  I bit my tongue at 20 mph. A beater truck passed, the crap in the back bouncing higher than the crumpled tail gate. A juggling act of buckets, cans, and other flotsam gained upward momentum as he passed, then slowed with him to a carefree tossing about.  The helmsman fishtailed at the curve ahead. The road as wide as a street through one of the Midwest’s deserted towns on a Sunday afternoon, gave him ample space to bank from side to side and never interrupt the swirling performance in the back.  Spray paint on a trailer house door strapped to a barbed wire fence read “Door Into the Unseen.”  I studied the technique used to secure it to the multi-strand fence as I got out to look about and blot blood from the chomped tongue.

Door Into The Unseen

Northern New Mexico, October

In a region devout to the faith of the Spanish throne, driving a washboard rough, chalky road in Abiquiu, New Mexico that snaked up to an adobe structure resembling the mosques of Northern Africa was a behind-the-wheel eureka moment.  It was as startling as gewgaw souvenirs in a high brow Taos gallery. Built by Egyptian architect Hassan Fathi in 1981, Dar al Islam was designed to serve as the fulcrum for a planned community. The village never materialized, but the mosque sponsors educational programs, retreats, and workshops connected to various educational institutions.  And it serves up magnificent architecture on a most unlikely backdrop.

Gawking and stumbling my way to the office for permission to walk about and photograph the exterior, I met Institute Director Rehana Shafi. Graciously he agreed to my no-commercial photography. I’m certain my photographic skill level was unquestionably a non-threat as he looked upon a person powdered with road dust, fighting her tongue to stay put and speaking with a lisp.

There’s not a religious bone in my body.  Spiritual bones, are quite another thing.  I’ve plenty of those. And have found road trips to be chock with moving experiences from one spiritual catalyst or another. Which is the reason I go – to be moved, and healed in the process (and I always return healed).  So on an October day as clearly bright and sensationally pristine as a Wyoming night, no wind, warm in the sun, cool in the shade, with an ultramarine sky streaked by an O’Keeffe flourish of white, I walked the mosque and grounds accompanied only by camera and free-wheeling thoughts.

Dar al Islam, Abiquiu

Dar al-Islam

The Mosque, Abiquiu, New Mexico

freewheeling thoughts

New Mexico, not Africa

Other New Mexico related posts in this series:

The Abiquiu Inn

Abiquiu – The Penitente Morada

Abiquiu – Plaza Blanca

Abiquiu – The Dar al Islam Mosque

Abiquiu

The Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail

New Mexico Travel Sites:

Hatch Chile Festival – September 3,4, 2011

New Mexico Tourism

Where to buy hatch chiles

Join the Road Trip Revolution at the Solo Road Trip Facebook Fan Page, here.