ALBUQUERQUE AND SANDIA PEAK TRAMWAY

May 16/10

Albuquerque is an attractive city, set on the west side of the Cibola Mountains, with the Rio Grande River running through it. The city is clean looking and decorated with Native American designs and southwest colours of sand and turquoise. Many of the subdivisions have adobe style houses with flat roofs.

Most of New Mexico advertises genuine Indian crafts, pottery and jewellery and there is a section of downtown ABQ (how about that abbreviation for Albuquerque?) with a variety of shops. We found one called the Palms Trading Co. and they had a good selection of genuine Hopi jewellery and some Navajo jewellery at reasonable prices. We did make a few purchases as souvenirs of our trip through New Mexico.

After shopping, we drove to the Sandia Peak Tramway at the northeast end of town. It is the world’s longest passenger tramway at 2.7 miles or 4.5 km in length. The tram is supported by 2 towers between the terminals and the span between tower 2 and the top is 1.5 miles which is one of the longest spans in the world. The elevation at the bottom is 6,559 ft. and the top terminal is 10,378 ft. We sure noticed the thinner air at the top as we were hiking along one of the trails. There were snow patches in the shade and it was cool up there, especially when the wind came up. Here are some photos:

Today is warm and sunny and we’re going to a church down the road on Route 66. As always, it will be an interesting experience. Other than doing a bit of shopping and fuelling up the truck, we plan to spend the rest of the day at “home.” If it gets warm enough, we may go to the pool for a swim. Back to the good weather life.