Cerro Pedernal was Georgia O'Keeffe's New Mexico mountain, often called her private mountain.
The flat-topped volcanic butte rises near Abiquiú and Ghost Ranch. O'Keeffe painted it repeatedly from different viewpoints and under changing conditions of light. Its distinctive profile became one of the recurring landmarks of her New Mexico imagery.
O'Keeffe once wrote that it was her private mountain and that she could see it from her house. The phrase captures both her personal attachment to the site and her habit of turning a familiar landscape into a lasting visual symbol.
Cerro Pedernal is not the same as New Mexico's larger and more famous mountains, such as the Sangre de Cristo range or Mount Taylor. Its significance in this context comes from O'Keeffe's repeated paintings and the intimate role it played in her daily surroundings. After her death, her ashes were scattered from its summit.