The Blue Hole
Saturday, July 5, 2008
What I thought the Blue Hole might look like - I like to imagine things before I actually see them in real life. I used Derwent Inktense water soluble pencils because I had heard that the “Blue” was intense.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Anticipation might be the best fun of all!
This is an idea espoused by one of my favorite spiritual teachers - that perhaps the very best part of an experience is how exciting and wonderful you think it will be, before you ever get to it. Think about that for awhile
Santa Rosa, NM is on I-40 going East from here. Every time I go East, I pass through Santa Rosa, and to be honest,
I have never seen much of a reason to stop. It’s a nice little town but not postcard-worthy.
However, I knew that Santa Rosa has a beautiful blue secret, so this time, I was determined to see it for myself.
There aren’t any obvious signs on the highway - just a billboard with no info on the approach to town, so you have to go in search of directional clues.
I chose a Dairy Queen for my first stop because it had the added benefit of ice cream. It also had the only portable hand-washing “station” I had ever seen - something like a big drinking fountain, but for washing your hands - cool.
I asked for directions and got a set - in the wonderful language of small town America:
“Go that way, and take a left when you see the Dollar Store. Then swing around the Hospital - just like you’re going to drive around the Hospital in a circle, but don’t. Take that lonely road you see for awhile and The Blue Hole is back there - you can’t miss it.”
I love how these type of directions always end with “you can’t miss it”!
You can. I have. But this time, I didn’t.
The reason I know about the Blue hole is that some of my friends are scuba divers, and it is famous with divers.
But there are no divers today. In fact, there’s nobody at all. Maybe they didn’t do so well with those directions?
I have it all to myself and the blue is hard to believe! My Inktense pencils had not done it justice. The water is disturbed only by some Koi, and their orange against this blue just knocks my socks off.
There are red and white balls - I suppose they might be depth indicators, but they certainly add to the grand photo-op.
It is just so amazing that something like this occurs naturally (they are called Artesian Wells), especially sitting there in the high desert of New Mexico.
They say the undisturbed water is so clear that you can tell a nickel from a button on the bottom.
I just saw some amazing photos and I took them . . .
I love how the rock shelf makes this look like a landscape with mountains.
Click this link to see a slide show of the best photos from that shoot:
