Walter De Maria, Lightning Field, 1977 - Quemado, New Mexico (September, 2023)
Background
400 polished stainless steel poles (about two inches in diameter and average 20 feet and 7 inches high) with pointed tips have been installed in a rectangular grid pattern measuring one mile by one kilometer; each pole 220 feet apart from one another. It is in the relatively remote central west region of New Mexico, about a 2 and a half hour drive from Albuquerque.
Designed by Walter De Maria in 1977, the poles are designed to attract lightning. De Maria selected this location specifically for its relatively high number of electrical storms. He and his team viewed multiple locations throughout the southwest before settling on this empty plateau.
Similar to Richard Serra’s East-West/West-East, the poles are all technically different heights, due to the different elevations on the ground, and all of them top out at the same height. So you could technically lay a 1.61 square kilometer plate on top of it and it would lay flat. Each pole is set in its own concrete footing, sturdily designed to survive through winds and elements.
Dia, who maintains and operates the site rightly suggests that despite the name, the experience is not dependent on you actually seeing any lightning. Actually if lightning strikes any of the poles, it actually damages them, and they have to replace them with new ones. But the full experience is much more than lightning. With quintissential land art ethos, Lightning Field simply convinces you to spend time in this remote location, using the art to help focus on the nature and landscape surrounding it and you. From a distance, you can barely see the poles, they often blur into the background. Spending long stretches of time outside, especially through sunrise and sunset are picturesque. On top of all of that, you have little to no reception, plus are required to stay on site in a cabin for the evening.
Sunset
Also, Dia requests that in keeping with the artist’s wishes, photography of The Lightning Field and the cabin is prohibited. I’ll respect this and not post any direct images of either; only of the surrounding areas. So pictures in this post will be minimal, but it wouldn’t really matter much, no picture can really capture the experience.
Dia hosts visitors from May to October, one group of 6 is allowed daily. Reservations are required and elusive. It costs $250 per person per night in the peak months of July and August, and $150 per person per night in the two months preceding and two months following that. The site is open between May and October annually, and booking requests open at midnight on February 1st. You email lightningfield@diaart.org with your reservation request details: number of guests in the party, preferred reservation dates, as well as alternative reservation dates. Below is the request I sent.
You’ll receive this automated response. Considering the flood of emails they get, I imagine it is absolute chaos to try and coordinate this manually. I would not expect back a reply other than the automated one, through not fault of their own, it’s just unfeasible.
At some point, probably around a 3-4 weeks after the submissions open, you can join the waitlist. Which we did, after not hearing from the original submission. This form is a lot more defined and I imagine way more helpful to parse out and organize. The link is https://diaart.wufoo.com/forms/the-lightning-field-2023-waitlist if you change the year in the URL, it seems to work for the appropriate year, i.e. https://diaart.wufoo.com/forms/the-lightning-field-2024-waitlist. I’d highly suggest doing this as it seemed to improve your odds greatly. In our group of 6, 4 of us were off the waitlist. We selected 2-4 weeks notice, as we obviously would need a bit of time to plan to get out there.
Travel
If you get a reservation, you’ll have to drive to 3469 US-60, Quemado, NM 87829 (the Dia Art Foundation office). This is about two and a half hour drive southwest of Albuquerque International Sunport (we need to take a moment and recognize how cool it is that their airport is called the Sunport). It’s a smooth and easy drive with no offroading, there’s no need for an SUV / AWD. You park at the office in a small town (don’t leave valuables in your vehicle obviously, but all three of our cars were fine and untouched when we returned to them), and transfer over to the Dia SUV along with the other visitors and they drive the six of you together to the cabin / installation. They request that you all arrive by 2 PM MT, and to not be late otherwise you may be left behind. Everyone was there around 1 PM and because we were all present, they took us over early. This part of the drive is on some less used roads (takes about an hour), but it’ll be via their vehicle.
Below is our route we took to and from Quemado / Lightning Field.
The farthest pin to the southwest is the Dia Art Foundation office in Quemado; the pin to the northeast of it is Lightning Field’s cabin
Lightning Field is located at 34°31'10.6"N 108°06'21.6"W. It is on and surrounded by private land, so respect that you should not trespass and visit it on your own. There are a few shops in Quemado that you can pick up a drinks and snacks in case you want to bring those along to the cabin. However, if you want more options, I’d certainly suggest picking it up in Albuquerque. There’s also a gas station, so don’t worry about fiiling up. Though when we were there, there was a very large vehicle carrying a wind turbine blade and it blocked a good portion of the station.
As mentioned before, Lightning Field costs $150 per person per night for the shoulder months of May, June, September, and October. It increases to $250 per person per night for the peak (lightning likelihood) months of July and August. Given the 2 hour round trip drive, accommodations, two meals (dinner and breakfast), this actually was a pretty good deal (for the shoulder months).
Along the route to Quemado, there are some interesting detours worth taking. Along the northern route, we cannot advocate more for the Sky City Cultural Center and Haak’u Museum at the Acoma Pueblo. This beautiful and ancient American town has existed since 1150 AD, atop a sheer-walled 367 sandstone plateau. Visit and support the Acoma people. There is a new museum facility with a cafeteria, clean bathrooms, and cold water. They have some respectful local artisans in the courtyard offering some really cool Native American gifts. You do not need a reservation for a group under 9 people. I believe tickets were $54 for the two of us, but I don’t have a solid record of this (may have included the tip as well, unclear).
We were the only two there for the first tour of the day as we wanted to do it the morning before we had to arrive in Quemado, but they had us wait for a prescheduled large group of elderly alumni from the University of Wisconsin Badgers. They arrived late, and they moved slowly, so our tour took about twice as long as they estimated, but it was a great experience. We helped push some wheelchairs through non-ADA areas, and they were very lovely company. And we still had plenty of time to drive to Quemado afterwards and make it to Dia with plenty of time to spare.
Pictures don’t do it justice, and we were asked not to take a picture of the cemetery, which was a top tier cemetery. I’d place it up there with Normandy American (France), Calvary (Queens, NY), and Bonaventure (Savannah, GA). There are some great views and cool buildings. It is a unique little town that is very cool to visit.
On the southern route is the NRAO Very Large Array, famous from the film Contact. These 27 giant radio telescope attennas work as a group in different configurations, moved along rails. The formation we saw was quite a wider and spread out version, but it must be pretty cool when they’re in a tighter formation. There’s a visitor center with a documentary narrated by Jodie Foster (she played the main character in Contact), some exhibits, bathrooms, and a gift shop (though the website says it’s now closed). We did not pay for the admission, but just showed up and figured we got the vibes and moved on. It is cool to see them, sort of a simultaneously larger and smaller modern version of Lightning Field. They’re right next to and intersecting the highway, so it’s hard to miss. Another pair from Lightning Field that we stayed with also swung by this on the way back to Albuquerque. It’s also not far from a place called PieTown, with, you guessed it, pie.
Farther away, but places we also coupled with this trip are Santa Fe, Los Alamos, and Bandelier National Monument. This post is getting a little long, so I’ll cut our experiences over there from this and just use a few pictures. Quick notes:
Santa Fe is home to the first Meow Wolf, it’s chaotic and hard to explain, but it can be a good time. This one actually has a venue space for concerts which looks like it would be really fun.
Santa Fe is also famous for its margaritas, so get plenty of them. There’s even a “trail” you can follow.
The famous Los Alamos guardpost picture is a roadside attraction now, and rebuilt for tourism pictures.
There’s a local Los Alamos brewery with a beer called Hoppenheimer.
The fourth Saturday of September is National Public Lands Day, which means all parks are free!
Experience
Exactly four weeks ahead (08/21/23) of our potential visit date (09/21/23) we received a Waitlist Offer. They give you until the end of the next business day to respond and confirm. We had about 29 hours to mull it over and respond. We frantically looked at our plans figured out what we could move around and in 3 hours and 18 minutes responded that we would take the reservation. You fill out some forms, waivers, and payment. And the administrator (Darby in this case) is very helpful in holding your hand through the process and confirming it all went through and you’re good to go.
It just so happened that we decided to take a trip to Utah in September, 2023. We had booked it in June, originally intending for a long weekend (between Friday and Tuesday, costing us only 2 PTO days). Our round trip cost was $287.80 per person for LGA-SLC. It cost us $198.90 per person to book a one way between SLC-ABQ and $133.90 per person one way from ABQ-LGA. We waited until we took the first leg from LGA-SLC, then cancelled the return leg. We were credited $158.90 each through Delta, I guess it’s more expensive to fly to New York than to fly out of New York, as our credit was 55% of our original round trip ticket. This credit expires one year from when you booked the flight (not when you were supposed to fly). So, this additional destination was a net cost of $173.90 per person.
We woke up early on our Lightning Field day to go to the aforementioned Acoma Pueblo. We arrived in Quemado a little after 1 pm, along with the other visitors, and we hit the road before the 2 pm deadline since we were all present and ready. Beforehand we had picked up some beer and wine to enjoy on the grounds. We were in good company, as both other parties did the same. Dalton, our driver and host, facilitated some introductions and answered questions on the drive over. He resides nearby somewhere, but out of eyesight. Fun fact: Carlton County is pretty rural and remote. In 1994 (though for various other reasons) the county passed a resolution urging every household to own a gun… there were no guns on the property as far as I could tell.
The driveway to the cabin
What really sets visiting Lightning Field apart from other pieces was the time it took and the strangers you stay with. It’s a 20-22 hour experience, and it will be six of you. In our case (and it sounds like most), we were forced to interact with four strangers that we would never have met in our lives. Sharing a wood homesteading cabin in the middle of nowhere. It has a kitchen, and a spacious living / dining room with pellet stoves for warmth in the evening. Two bedrooms and one bathroom are accessible from the living room, with an additional bedroom and ensuite bathroom only accessible from the exterior. There’s a wraparound porch around half the space, facing west and south. The installation is south of the cabin.
Now while it is called Lightning Field, we were in a shoulder season with a low chance of lightning. It really didn’t hinder our experience. The following evening had rain and lightning on the forecast, so it’s possible the next group caught some, but who knows. The experience was kind of what I want cabin glamping to be like. Remote nature, but solid modern accommodations, with friendly strangers sharing stories, food, and drinks.
Two of our companions were an older married couple of civil engineers (I believe) from the Albuquerque area. They balked at the fact that we ate at the Monte Carlo Liquors & Steak House the night before. They had gotten off the waitlist earlier that week. Finally being able to attend after more than a decade of applications. They were surprised it was our first try. They seemed to represent New Mexico well; with their grudge with Arizona and believing in UFOs. They opted to take the bedroom with the separate entrance and dedicated bathroom. The other two were lifelong friends who leave their husbands to do girls’ trips. They too have seemed to have applied for around a decade to get to Lightning Field. Both were from the east coast, Philly and New York I believe. They took the twin bed bedroom.
After claiming our room and dropping our bags off, we immediately took off and went straight into the field. There’s a well trodden path around the perimeter, but any previous trail through the interior has faded through lack of repetition. We walked to the far side, where there were a couple of meandering cows on the other side of a fence. The grid of poles is pretty perfect. As you walk past them, you can always have endless rows of poles disappear behind other poles. The elevation changes and regrowth of nature over the years creates a fascinating juxtaposition of man made mathematical angles versus natural imperfections.
Sunset and Sunrise were dramatic, accentuated by the uniform lightning changes across the poles. The slight glimmer and reflection is unique. Don’t miss them. At certain angles, all the poles can just appear and disappear in the light. Changing color, refracting across their coordinated polished bodies.
Dinner was scheduled to be after sunset, we placed the enchiladas in the oven beforehand, and timed it so no one would miss the sunset. We all sat together at the dining table, with drinks and food galore. It was a unique experience, to have a two hour intimate dinner with strangers.
The perfect book for the occasion
While Mattos walked the perimeter a few times, I spent most of the afternoon sitting on the porch reading. I had delayed finishing my book, just for this location. I listened to the wind ripple across the plains, every so often distracted by the occasional rabbit that popped by or a walker completing an excursion and returning to the cabin. The book was recommended by my friend Avery, called Empire of the Summer Moon. A historical narrative of the American frontier during the 19th century, set mostly in Comancheria, the land of the Comanches (now parts of modern day Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico). While we were located outside of the territory, it still have the right vibes. Especially descriptions of the “vast sea of land”. It’s a powerful and fascinating preservation of history. Plus its always sort of cool when “my name” kind of appears in media.
The stars were generally clearer than this
The moon and stars were bright, thanks in part to how remote we were and that we were in a dark sky territory. I like to anchor most night photos with a subject, and in this case I used the cabin, which meant I only have the one photo that I am able to share. Mattos had difficulty sleeping, because we were in a strange creaky and drafty frontier cabin with no locks. But, to be fair to her, some of our companions in the middle of the night went to view the stars again. So there were noises and footsteps coming from outside.
Summary
I highly recommend that everyone go and experience Lightning Field. De Maria once said that “Isolation is the essence of land art” and there is certainly some truth to that. The journey is a challenge and the destination is all the sweeter for it. I recognize that last minute planning and a surprise trip to the Land of Enchantment isn’t exactly the coolest thing to do, but if you can pull it off, it’ll be worth it. A detox from technology and speed, combined with connecting with humans, nature, and art, was a wonderful experience.
Sources
Dia Art Foundation. "Walter De Maria: The Lightning Field." Dia Art Foundation. Accessed June 13, 2024. https://diaart.org/visit/visit-our-locations-sites/walter-de-maria-the-lightning-field.
Dia Art Foundation. "Walter De Maria, The Lightning Field, 1977." Dia Art Foundation. Accessed June 13, 2024. https://www.diaart.org/collection/collection/de-maria-walter-the-lightning-field-1977-1977-003-1-400/.
Wikipedia. "The Lightning Field." Wikipedia. Accessed June 13, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lightning_Field.
Khan Academy. "Walter De Maria, The Lightning Field." Khan Academy. Accessed June 13, 2024. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/post-war-american-art/minimalism-and-earthworks/a/walter-de-maria-the-lightning-field.
Nathan Goldman. "Walter De Maria’s The Lightning Field Is a Modern Masterpiece." The Atlantic, November 4, 2022. https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2022/11/walter-de-maria-lightning-field-art-installation/672035/.
Public Delivery. "Walter De Maria: The Lightning Field." Public Delivery. Accessed June 13, 2024. https://publicdelivery.org/walter-de-maria-lightning-field/.
Kenneth Baker. "The Lightning Field." Artforum. Accessed June 13, 2024. https://www.artforum.com/features/the-lightning-field-208912/.
Kelly Klaasmeyer. "A Day in the Life of The Lightning Field." Gagosian Quarterly, March 26, 2021. https://gagosian.com/quarterly/2021/03/26/essay-day-life-lightning-field/.
Sarah Lehrer-Graiwer. "At The Lightning Field." X-TRA, March 22, 2021. https://www.x-traonline.org/article/at-the-lightning-field.
Atlas Obscura. "The Lightning Field." Atlas Obscura. Accessed June 13, 2024. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lightning-field.
Acoma Sky City. "Tours." Acoma Sky City. Accessed June 13, 2024. https://www.acomaskycity.org/page/tours.