Sandia Mountains

These are the Sandia Mountains as we see them every day from our home west of Albuquerque, NM. Albuquerque lays at the feet of the mountains along the Rio Grande River and can't be seen in this photo. Most of the time we simply see this big mountain and take them for granted. But the last part of October we decided to take a drive up to the top. The following photos are the ones I took that day. We took our Border Collie, Tuffee with us and you can see her in this photo, too. At our home we are about 6500 feet in elevation. The top of the Sandia Mountains, known as Sandia Crest is a bit over 11,000 feet high. Much higher than it looks in this photo. When making this drive you will go from about 5000 feet in parts of Albuquerque and desert country all the way to the top which is considered Alpine country at tree line. There is a dirt road going up the west or 'backside' of the Sandias through the little town of Placitis. Or you can drive the paved road up the east side of the Mountains through Cedar Crest. The Sandia Mountains are part of the Cibola National Forest. There are many acres of forest with lots of wildlife. I don't believe there is much logging or hunting allowed in the Sandias anymore. There are several nice picnic areas that are constantly being improved. Plus there is a ski resort and restaurant as well as the Sandia Tram which is the longest tram in the United States and goes from a restaurant in the northeast part of Albuquerque to the restaurant at the ski resort near the top of the mountain. I rode the tram in 1968 and 1980 but haven't raked up the nerve to ride it again. There is more info on the Sandia Mountains at http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/cibola/districts/sandia.shtml

Mountain Meadow

One of the small mountain meadows that are scattered all over the Sandia Mountains. This one slopes toward the edge of the mountain so that you can see toward Albuquerque. There are lots of deer, elk, bear, squirrels, cougars, bobcats, skunks, and lots of different kinds of birds in the Sandias. We have seen nearly all these animals except cougars in the 35 years that we have been coming here. But once we got here today and started thinking about it we realized it had probably been at least 10 years since our last trip. Usually we go west to the Jemez Mountains.

WindSwept Tree

I really loved the photo quality of this very nold, Juniper tree that was along the edge of Sandia Crest. I took lots of shots of it from all three angles I could get to. The fourth side of the tree was hanging off into space and I didn't want to go there. Lee took several pictures of me under it and then I took some of him. I think it is a Juniper tree and who knows just how old it it. Due to the wind blowing on it almost constantly I am sure it isn't as large as it would be if it was on flat land. And it is that wind that has shaped this tree the way it is.

Albuquerque

This was my best photo actually looking down at Albuquerque, NM from Sandia Crest. It was hazey this day, on better days you can actually make out buildings and streets in Albuquerque, and with field glasses you can see my house way, way west, almost 100 miles west of the mountains.