The Lovely Espanola Valley, New Mexico

Where you can discuss history and famous dead people with the locals and walk across the street to the cyber café?

Where you can see some of the most exquisite art, sculptures, pottery and crafts in the world? And go gambling?

Here, in Española Valley, in this exquisitely beautiful space between Taos and Santa Fe, in the heart of the Pueblo Country, you have such a place.

Do you love hiking? Riding in early-century train coaches or mid-century luxury cars?

How about ancient and modern history and culture? Or museums, art galleries, fine dining, day trips, storytellers?

Do you like Oriental rugs? Or do you want to learn to weave your own rugs?

Well, they're all to be found here, and more.

Take, for example, Ghost Ranch at Abiquiu, whose thousands of acres are spread out across the Piedra Lumbre basin -- this is the place that so deeply fascinated and inspired the great American artist Georgia O'Keefe that she couldn't stop painting the awe-inspiring landscape. She just had to show it to the world, and the world sat up and took notice - still does!

Over a century ago, Ghost Ranch was a hideout for the legendary outlaws of the wild, wild West. As time passed, it morphed into a dude ranch for people who wanted to have their own taste of that wild, untamed land memorialized in so many wonderful movies; their own moment of stepping out of time, out of the rat race, the business, the stress of modern life.

Its anthropology museum is home to artifacts that span over 10,000 years of history, from the Paleo Indian culture all the way through to the modern Pueblo. Pottery, baskets, metal tools, railroad memorabilia, farm equipment - all are here, reflecting the intertwined presence of the ancient ancestral tribes of Ute, Navajo and Apache, and later the Spaniards and ranchers.

The Ranch's paleontology museum offers visitors the unique treat of actually observing the on-going process of uncovering fossils in its dinosaur quarry. Here is where a new kind of dinosaur was discovered - only 10 feet long - in the late 1940's. Its almost complete skeleton now stands proudly at Ghost Ranch, named "Effigia okeefeae" (O'Keefe's Ghost), after having been stored away for almost 50 years in the basement of the American Museum!

With its amazing hiking trails amidst the spectacular beauty of Triassic and Jurassic rock formations, the Ranch also offers outdoor adventures and challenges to young and old alike, including rope courses for team building, labyrinth-walking, canoeing and kayaking.

In addition, it has an ongoing, learn-as-you go demonstration constructed wetland project which allows people to work with and contribute to the environment while naturally and effectively treating wasteland water and thoroughly purifying it to be used again.

Over the centuries, Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu (whose motto is, "let our world change your world") has evolved into a place of sanctuary, healing, peace and tranquility, where perhaps heaven and earth meet, if even just a little.