Albuquerque is located along a fault line that is upthrusted on the east and downthrusted under the city to create the Rio Grande Valley. The Sandia range towers about 5000 ft over the city. Sandia Peak is on the north side of the range and has been a landmark for thousands of years.
A tramway goes up the west side of the peak for both observation at the top and to help service a ski area on the east side. I've wanted to go up the tram since I first saw it years ago, and today was the day.
We were able to buy tickets on-line at the bottom of the hill. We only waited about 10 minutes for the gondola to come down and up we went. The elevation of the lower terminal is 6559 ft and the elevation at the top is 10, 378, or a climb of 3878 ft (or 3/4 of a mile). Albuquerque itself is 5,312 ft so from top to bottom, the tram is 5066 ft, or essentially a mile above the city.
This seems to be taking a long time to write this one. The new Chromebook and its operating system is different, and then we've had three people taking pictures, so there has been a lot of pictures to sort through.
At the Top!
The Photographer And the Subject!
Geology
I started out saying that Albuquerque is in a valley with uptrusted sides to the east and west. The underlying granite is ancient and was covered with ocean bottom sediments when this was coastal real estate generally around the time of the dinosaurs. Then massive faulting occurred and the center dropped down 20,000 feet and has been infilled with river sediments and volcanic outflows. The limestone became a caprock over the weathered granite and has kept the eastern slope of the Sandia mountains protected from erosion.
Now, not to degrade the subject matter of the picture below in any manner, shape, or form, its really the background that I want to talk about. Of all the pictures that I took up there (30-40 or so) and all the pictures that Jaye and Liz sent afterward, this is the only one that really shows that caprock limestone over the weathered granite. (One of the civic groups in Albuquerque built an warming hut at the end of the outcrop, and the picture shows the limestone caprock really well.) It's hard to see the pinkish color of the granite, but its there.
Which all comes down to...Sandia. Sandia means "watermelon" in Spanish and it refers to the pink color the mountains take on during sunset. (Thank goodness Liz insisted that we get at least one picture of the sunset on hillside!)
The Tram The Works at the Bottom And at the Top
Going Up ...... and Going Down (30 Second Video. Click once and then click the Full Screen Box
before you click the start button
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Liz was only in Albuquerque for two full days, so had to get a lot of pictures in. Not that it was a hardship!
Face it, Dad, You just aren't as Cute as "Ya Datta"!
Or as Beautiful!
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OK, so now I'm hungry. Lorena had recommended an eatery down by the Univ of New Mexico campus called Frontier. Jaye had also mentioned it as an option, and I chose it. It's pretty unassuming from the outside, but itside, Wow! You order from the counter, and there are five (or seven, don't remember) windows you can walk up to. (?? ....up to which you can walk?) There are three dining rooms with artwork (mainly paintings) on every open wall space.
Liz took this "Homage to Sally". We could hardly go to a new restaurant without Sally taking a picture of the the food. Usually with my mouth open. (Thanks for not doing that, Liz)
Finally, as we were driving home, we went past the "UFO House". It is a residence in the Nob Hill district in ABQ. (I located it by typing in "UFO House, Albuquerque" in Google Maps. Went right to it.)
But wait, There's more. The actual "schedule" was that we were going to go to the Tram and then go to Old Town. But, after the Tram, it was late, so we went to Frontier for a late lunch, and then Liz mentioned the UFO house, which wasn't too far away, and then we finally got to Old Town....at the stroke of 5:00 and everything was shutting down. We walked around the Square, hit two shops that were still open (without any of us buying anything!) and headed home around 6:00.
A young lady getting photographed in front of the San Felipe de Neri church, the oldest church in ABQ. As we were leaving, Liz saw this great cactus plant and needed a picture.
I will spare you the picture she took of me....(ouch, ok, you twisted my arm.)
It reminds me of a little Norwegian Nisse (or gnome) looking a bug on a flower that Sally had on her desk. I was actually looking at the buds on the cactus.
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