Great Sand Dunes and Christ in the Desert
September 21, 2008A couple of images from a more recent trip to the Southwest. I visited my good friend Eleanor McKay, whom I knew as a child as “Tiggy”. Tiggy lives in Albuquerque, NM and is a highly original and creative artist, whose work I find delightfully odd, unique, and inspiring.
Ruins of an old adobe church on the way to Ghost Ranch from Sante Fe.
The next two images are from a remote monastary called Christ in the Desert, thirty miles down rough road in the desert. It is a ‘silent order’ and though I don’t consider myself religious in a traditional sense, the intense spirituality and silence there is a balm to my big city, caffeine fueled personae.
Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. This fantastic, other-worldly environment, is for some reason, not that much visited. I had the dunes to myself. Of course, I had hiked in before dawn to get the shot.
Beautiful images of the dunes. We visited earlier this year – we arrived at mid-day, and I was thinking how incredible this place would be at dawn or dusk. Now I know!
I also love the far shot of the monastery against the cliffs and sky. It gives a sense of the divine. As an East Coast Canadian, I cannot get enough of the southwest. Thanks for sharing…
Hi Deborah,
Thank you for commenting on my blog. It is very nice to know others have been to The Great Sand Dunes. What a remarkable place! It was so very, very cold the morning I walked into the dunes before dawn. Plus, I had to ford the creek at the beginning of the dunes…. brrrrr.
It seems you and I share a love of the Southwest. I very much enjoyed looking at the images on your website and have been to some of the same places, Antelope Canyon being one of my favorites.