Albuquerque, New Mexico – November 1999

Hiking the Sandias

Of course, it’s getting colder in Albuquerque. The mountains are the first to go in winter, and a friend of mine went hiking in mountains south of Albuquerque just now and complained that it was snowing. So, a word of warning before you take any of my advice on hiking: check out the weather first! Albuquerque’s fall, spring and winter weather is extremely unpredictable, and sometimes it’s in the 60-70 degree range one day and cold and rainy or snowing the next. So, for the sunny days, here are some mountain activities…

The Sandía mountains are to the East of Albuquerque (a useful bit of information when you’re trying to navigate the city), and they owe their name to the rose color they turn at sunset. With the black shrubs dotting the pink mountains, they do kind of look like watermelons, which is what sandía means in Spanish.

The Sandías offer hiking trails for all levels of hikers and walkers, as well as several mountain biking trails. You can do the La Luz trail, which takes you from the bottom of the mountain to the top (or top to bottom, whichever your preference) in a good day’s hike. If you’re not quite acclimatized to the altitude (and you may not realize this until you’ve started walking and wonder why you’re out of breath after 3 minutes), there are a number of shorter trails to take, including several (ranging from ½ hour to 2 hours) easily accessible from Sandía Crest, the proverbial and actual end of the road.

By far the best information is available in the “Hiking the Sandías” map ($5), available in most local bookstores as well as at the Sandía Crest ranger station. If you don’t know where to hike, aren’t real picky, or are just too cheap to buy the map, just take I-40 to the Tramway exit, and follow the road up to Sandía Crest. This road leads past a number of trailheads, so you can just drive along until you find a place that looks right for you. Since the Sandías are part of a National Park, there is an entrance fee for the parking lots, but at $3 per vehicle, it’s not particularly steep.

If you’d prefer to do no walking at all, you can always take the Tram to the top of the mountains instead. This cable car that runs between Sandía Peak and Albuquerque (from Tramway Boulevard – go figure) is one of the most scenic ways of getting to the top of the Sandías. The mountaintop also offers a splendid view, not just of Albuquerque but of the surrounding areas – you can discern other mountains and mesas from there, and get a sense of just how vast the flat spaces of the Southwest are.

Once you’re up in the Sandías, you have limited food options. You can pack your own food or chow down at one of the two places to eat atop the Sandías, one on Sandía Crest and one on Sandía Peak – about an hour’s hike apart. The Sandía Crest restaurant is more of a diner, offering standard, if somewhat overpriced, meals of the hamburger-and-chips variety. The Sandía Peak restaurant, at the Tram station, offers sit-down meals and much higher prices. Not just geared toward tourists, it’s a favorite excursion point for many locals, and the food is reputed to be fairly good, though the view is the main attraction.

Other Events

And if you’re completely uninterested in mountains, other Albuquerque events this November include two ArtsCrawls, which are tours of artists’ studios and their work, on Nov. 19 and 26; information available at (505) 255-0799. Also, if you’re looking to buy some Southwestern-themed gifts for the holidays, the State Fairgrounds play host to two events:

Nov. 12-14: it’s the Southwest Arts Festival, a juried arts show and sale, and

Nov. 19-21: the Zia Arts and Crafts Festival/Holiday Show.

Call (505) 823-1092 for more information.

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