While still in Albuquerque, we decided to venture on what is called the Turquoise Trail. Our real destination was the Sandria Crest which is at an elevation of 10,678 feet! The drive up to that summit was beautiful, although a few over the cliff edges that I really did not want to see. There were a lot of switchbacks to get to that elevation.
We did notice that Fall colors seem to be abundant but what is different than Minnesota is it is mainly bright yellows and not really any reds that we could see. Or if there were some red it was very minimal and mostly on small bushes.
Once we got to the top of the summit, we were rewarded with amazing views in all directions.
We stayed up there for awhile and enjoyed the view. We were concerned that 10,000 feet may cause some sickness or at least light headedness, but we did not feel any negative impacts other than ear popping.
You could tell we were at a very high point of the city with the number of antennas that were in a fenced in area at this summit.
There was a cafe at that top that we stopped in and you could see how the altitude impacted these bags of potato chips! I was waiting for a pop and potato chips flying everywhere!
Max did enjoy a little snow….
There were just a couple of piles of snow up there — assume left over from a snowfall over the last few days.
We headed down but first stopped at the 10K Trailhead to snap a couple more pictures. The pictures do not do it justice, but it was just amazing looking down in to that valley.
We got back on the Turquoise Trail and heading north towards Santa Fe. Off in the distance we could see snow covered mountain tops.
One of the towns along the route was Madrid — this is where they filmed a number of the scenes from the movie Wild Hogs (starring Tim Allen). The set for Maggie’s Main Street Diner was built specifically for the movie and is now a t-shirt and souvenir shop.
The rest of the town, as most along the Turquoise Trail, was filled with local artists jewelry and various art pieces. We decided to not stop at Santa Fe and instead head back to our campgrounds.
It was such a beautiful sunny day it was a great day to head up to that Summit!
TIFN
Dandy Ventures 