Ghost Ranch was the New Mexico ranch where Georgia O'Keeffe lived before settling at Abiquiú. Its red cliffs, open spaces, and distinctive formations became a major source of subjects for her paintings and drawings.
O'Keeffe began visiting northern New Mexico in 1929 and returned repeatedly. She rented a house at Ghost Ranch and used the surrounding landscape as a place to work. The region's geology encouraged her to simplify cliffs, hills, and distant mountains into bold arrangements of color and shape.
Ghost Ranch and Abiquiú are often mixed up because both places are central to O'Keeffe's New Mexico story. Ghost Ranch is the larger landscape setting north of Abiquiú; the Abiquiú Home and Studio is the adobe property she acquired in 1945. Both remain strongly connected with her legacy.