Cibola National Forest and Sandia Crest

After talking with Jerry at lunch yesterday, we decided we wanted to visit the crest of Sandia Mountain and the overlook of Albuquerque. There are two ways to do this: ride a tram up, or drive up. We elected to drive up.

Entering the Cibola National Forest

The road up is just under 14 miles long... gaining 3,500 feet in elevation...

With a LOT of switchbacks!

We saw some deer - this was the first one we saw, feeding alongside the road.

A few miles further, we saw a group,

The two on the roadway were licking the roadway - maybe to get salt?

Dwayne got a good shot of the male and female on the roadway.

Continuing up the switchbacks!

We eventually reached the crest...

Gorgeous views over Albuquerque

We were one mile above Albuquerque and two miles above sea level. It wasn't a terrifically clear day, but we still had good views. The setting sun paints the rosy colored granite of the face of this mountain crimson - therefore named by Spanish settlers "watermelon" - a fruit of that color.

The green of the Rio Grande Valley...

I-40 heading west from downtown - right at the top of the picture, you may be able to see that I-40 bends to the right and some buildings and trees up at the very top middle of the picture...

Zoomed in on that -- the building in front of the trees is the Camping World that is just east of us, and the trees mark the campground where we are staying.

Where I-25 and I-40 cross near the center of Albuquerque...

A part of the mountain just in front of the observation area...

The Balloon Fiesta grounds that we had visited yesterday...

Buildings in downtown...

As we came up the road, we saw all these communication towers, and I wondered about how they are in the National Forest - I appreciated the sign board that explained!

Communication towers on the summit.

Looking toward the east. There was a gift shop and restaurant, but both were closed (I don't know whether they are open on some days or times other than when we were there, or whether they are closed permanently).

Another thing we noticed on the way up was how many dead trees there were...

This shows the impact of the Douglas-fir tussock moth in this area....

Leaving the forest looking rather blighted.

We were both busily taking pictures...

Dwayne had his long lens....

With which he was able to get really great pictures!

 When we got back to the campground, we took another walk around, and I got a few more pictures of the "kitsch"...

This directional sign had pointers on all 4 sides, but I liked that it pointed to "Yonder" and "Wits End". Note: I tried looking up both of these as towns in NM, and they don't exist. I think all the others do, though - except "Very Large Array" is not a town, but an installation of equipment for deep space study that we visited a few years ago! (http://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2015/04/places-along-way-part-2.html)

In my post yesterday of the classic trailers, I didn't find the sign for the one very small one nor for the Hudson automobile, but I saw it today!

In the gift shop was this listing of movies that have used this campground's building as part of the movie set.

Tomorrow we plan to head to Santa Fe (staying a little outside at a Corps of Engineers park). We've enjoyed Albuquerque!