After breakfast this morning (waffles again!), we got ready to drive to the tramway for Sandia Peak. We got to the lift station around 10:30 and by 11:00 we were on our way up the mountain. My goodness that is an incredible ride. Such beautiful scenery! Here is Mom as the tram was just starting out.
And some of the scenery as we got higher up. As taken from inside the tram.
Sure was beautiful up at the top, and so much cooler!
We had lunch at the "High Finance" Restaurant up on top. We had soup, salad, fish and chips, and a delicious chocolate cake.
A few pictures of another tram arriving, to give a perspective of from where we came. The tram ride is over 2 miles long!
Sure was beautiful up at the top, and so much cooler!
We had lunch at the "High Finance" Restaurant up on top. We had soup, salad, fish and chips, and a delicious chocolate cake.
A few pictures of another tram arriving, to give a perspective of from where we came. The tram ride is over 2 miles long!
As you can see from that last picture, there were rain storms in the area, but they never got to where we were so we had a wonderful visit to Sandia Peak. We looked around in the visitor center, talking with the volunteer worker there and some other visitors. We would have liked to walk around more in the area, but all visitors were confined to the boardwalk, due to the extreme fire danger. But Mom enjoyed looking at all the plants that she could from the boardwalk!
After we came back down with the tram, we spent a fun time in the gift shop looking for some neat things to take home. Driving back down off of the mountain, we decided to drive up Hwy. 25 to see if we could find the Sandia Pueblo. We drove until we came to a place we could turn around (which was quite a distance!) but we never found the pueblo. On the way back, Mom mentioned that she has never seen a casino inside and since we had passed one on our way down from Sandia Peak, we decided that we should just go to that casino! We did the valet parking (free!), then walked around inside among the slot machines and tables, just observing everything that was going on. We DID put one dollar in one machine and got nothing. We were amazed at the people who seemed to just keep pushing buttons and pulling handles without ever putting any money in, until we saw somebody just stick their credit card in. So, we guessed that's how some people do it. Anyway, it got old after a while, walking around in there, so we slipped into the gift shop, then went back out and they got our car for us and we left. Mom thought the whole experience was very interesting.
In the gift shop, I had asked one of the employees if she knew where the Sandia Pueblo, and she gave us directions, but the place was closed. So, we figured it was time to head back to our hotel. As we neared the hotel, we decided to try one more time to find the road that takes you to the back of the little volcanoes and this time we found it! We were so excited to finally be on the road to those volcanoes! We had tried 2 times already to get close to those volcanoes. So, here are some pictures of the little volcanoes that are in the Petroglyph National Monument.
One of the volcanoes with interesting clouds behind it.
In the gift shop, I had asked one of the employees if she knew where the Sandia Pueblo, and she gave us directions, but the place was closed. So, we figured it was time to head back to our hotel. As we neared the hotel, we decided to try one more time to find the road that takes you to the back of the little volcanoes and this time we found it! We were so excited to finally be on the road to those volcanoes! We had tried 2 times already to get close to those volcanoes. So, here are some pictures of the little volcanoes that are in the Petroglyph National Monument.
One of the volcanoes with interesting clouds behind it.
In the very center of this picture there is a little black dot - that is a person walking towards the parking lot where we were. He had walked to the top of one volcano, across to this one pictured here and then gave up on taking the trail back and was cutting across this field. Believe me, it was HOT out here, and he had no hat or water on him.
The third volcano with a nice rain shower going on behind it.
Even though it was hot, we were so happy to have found a place to see the volcanoes closer up. We always looked for the three volcanoes as we were driving around town.
Later that evening, we drove out to a place called Dion's, because we had seen them around Albuquerque and wanted to try a place that was only in Albuquerque. It turned out to be a pizza place and we had a delicious artichoke pizza with salad for dinner.
Then we drove back to our hotel, but the sunset looked so pretty again where the volcanoes were that we decided to go back out and see the volcanoes against the sunset. By the time we got to within a good viewing distance, the light had faded pretty much so we were too late. BUT, driving back towards Albuquerque we were able to see the sprawling city all lit up and that in itself was really beautiful. So, we ended our last night in Albuquerque late, but happy that we had seen most of the things we wanted to see.
It looks like you and Mom have been having lots of fun! Mom sure looks happy in all the pictures, too. Thanks for taking her there and to all those places to see the sights. I'm glad you were able to go up on the tram. I like that ride and being on top of the mountain (even if I do get out of breath there).
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