CDT 8: There are No Words that can Take the Place of Seeing Something Beautiful

Ghost Ranch to HWY-160 (Cumbres Pass)As we approached Ghost Ranch I felt as though this was supposed to be a profound moment for me as an artist, but all I was really thinking about was the awesome buffet they were supposed to have. We cleaned ourselves up, ate, and waited for the storm to arrive.I enjoyed listening to fellow Ghost Ranch visitors carry on about Georgia O'keeffe and wondered why I was not more inspired to poke about this place she made famous. After awhile I realized that I simply enjoyed being in this same magnificent landscape where she had also enjoyed being. The colors of the surrounding cliffs were at once soothing and inspiring, possessing all my favorite colors for painting.We stayed over for a day waiting for the storm to pass, but with its delay always another day away we finally decided to head out when the snow began to fall. It was exciting and a bit worrisome wondering how much snow might fall and how much snow was already in the hills we would be hiking through over the next several days.It was magical walking away from Ghost Ranch through the falling snow. White, fluffy, flakes fell from the sky in a mist over the warm tones of this magnificent desert landscape. As we walked higher into the surrounding hills I thought a lot about what inspires me as an artist, the ways I try to capture that inspiration, and how others see me as an artist. But at some point that thought always turns into a blur leaving me speechless and wondering, "How can anyone not be inspired by this. If they could only be here right now they would know, and they would be inspired too. I just have to show them. There are no words that can take the place of seeing a beautiful thing."Over the next several days the snow saturated the ground turning it into a thick, sticky, paste that clung to my shoes like giant anchors begging me to stay. We slowly made our way up to 10,000 feet where the snow was crisp and cold and I quickly forgot about the warm desert landscape behind us.