Albuquerque: Balloons, Route 66 and a City Under the Sandia Mountains

Albuquerque, New Mexico’s largest city by far, hosts the world’s largest ballooning event, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, which fills nine days in October. The city sits in the Rio Grande Valley beneath the Sandia Mountains, close to the center of the state. It is the state’s media, educational and economic center and has its only major airport, but it is often overshadowed as a tourist destination by Santa Fe, 60 miles (97 km) to the north. This guide is condensed from the Wikivoyage travel guide, with listings, phone numbers, hours and prices left out.

Old Town Albuquerque (photo: MARELBU, CC BY 3.0).

A short history and a climate

Albuquerque was founded in 1706 as a small Spanish settlement on the Rio Grande and named for the Duke of Alburquerque, which gave it the nickname “The Duke City.” When the railroad arrived in the 1880s, a “New Town,” today’s Downtown, grew up around the tracks a couple of miles from the original settlement. The two later joined into one city. In the 1920s Route 66 was designated, and Albuquerque was one of the towns it passed through. From the 1950s the city grew quickly, helped by federal investment in military bases and an influx of visitors and new residents.

The city is in high semi-desert, at an elevation of 4,989 feet (1,521 m). Summers are hot and mostly dry, with highs averaging around 93 °F (34 °C), and furious but short thunderstorms come with the July or August monsoon. Fall is described as delightful. Winters can be blustery with overnight lows below freezing. Snow is infrequent and short-lived, but because it is rare, local drivers handle it poorly and a snowstorm can bring road chaos.

Getting in and finding your way

Two interstates cross the city: I-40 east to west and I-25 north to south. Where they meet is a large intersection locals call “The Big I.” Old Route 66 runs along Central Avenue. The Sunport is the state’s major air hub, and Southwest Airlines carries most of its traffic. The guide has a tip for passengers prone to airsickness: arrive before noon or after sundown, because afternoon thermals from the high elevation, hot sun and spring winds can make landings bumpy. Amtrak’s Southwest Chief stops at the Alvarado Transportation Center Downtown, which is also a Greyhound depot and a station for the New Mexico Rail Runner Express, a commuter train that links Albuquerque to Santa Fe.

Street addresses carry a quadrant suffix (NE, NW, SE or SW). The railroad tracks, which run parallel to I-25, divide the city east from west, and Central Avenue divides north from south. The Sandia Mountains to the east make it hard to get truly lost. The guide calls Albuquerque a casual, humble and friendly place where shorts and sandals are fine almost anywhere.

What to see

• Old Town. Where the city was founded. Its plaza is bordered on the north by the San Felipe de Neri Church, the oldest building in Albuquerque, and at Christmas thousands of paper-bag luminarias line the streets.
• Museums near the plaza. The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History; the American International Rattlesnake Museum, which claims the largest collection of live rattlesnake species in the world; ¡Explora! Science Center and Children’s Museum; the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, with dinosaurs and an exhibit on the birth of the personal computer in Albuquerque; and the Turquoise Museum.
• Elsewhere in the city. The ABQ BioPark (zoo, aquarium and botanic garden), the Anderson–Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum, the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center run by the 19 Indian Pueblos of New Mexico, the National Hispanic Cultural Center, and the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History, where a guestbook invites visitors to share views on the use of atomic bombs on Japan.
• Sandia Peak Tramway. A 15-minute ride to the top of 10,400-foot (3,200 m) Sandia Peak, one of the longest aerial tramways in the world according to the guide, with a view that is best after sunset.
• University of New Mexico. The state’s largest institution of higher education, with Pueblo-Revival adobe buildings, a duck pond, and museums of anthropology, geology and art.

The Sandia Peak Tramway rises above Albuquerque (photo: AdamSelby, CC BY-SA 3.0).

Outdoors and the Balloon Fiesta

Petroglyph National Monument, a unit of the National Park System on the city’s west side, preserves petroglyphs that the guide says are in good condition despite the nearby city. The Rio Grande Valley State Park holds nearly all the city’s bosque (cottonwood forest); its Paseo del Bosque trail runs the length of the park for walking and cycling. The Sandia Mountains offer hiking (the La Luz trail is popular), rock climbing and mountain biking, and skiing in winter.

Petroglyph National Monument (photo: Daniel Schwen, CC BY-SA 4.0).

The Balloon Fiesta begins on the first Saturday of October and ends with a farewell mass ascension on the Sunday of the next weekend. Highlights include:

Balloons fly best in cool air, so events are early. Traffic is heavy, and the guide recommends park-and-ride and hotel reservations far in advance. Other annual events include the New Mexico State Fair for two weeks in September and the National Fiery Foods & BBQ Show in March.

A mass ascension at the Balloon Fiesta (photo: Bill Johnson, CC BY-SA 4.0).

Eating, sleeping and staying well

Dining is generally inexpensive and casual. New Mexican cooking comes with the question “Red or green?”, which refers to the chile sauce. Red chile is the ripe, often dried pepper and green is the immature one. The guide says heat depends more on the pepper strain and the restaurant’s preparation than on color, and warns first-timers to go easy on green chile. Meals often come with sopaipillas, a fry bread, and desserts include flan and natillas.

Hotels are being built, mostly mid-range, driven partly by shortages during the Balloon Fiesta, so reserve months ahead for October. Portions of Central Avenue can be dangerous after dark, from the train tracks to University Boulevard and especially east of Carlisle; the Nob Hill and UNM district is described as safe at night. At about 5,000 feet, with little cloud cover and very low humidity, sunburn and dehydration are common, and the headache many visitors blame on altitude is often dehydration.

Where to go next

Santa Fe is the obvious trip, by I-25 or on the Turquoise Trail (NM 14) east of the Sandias, where the artist community of Madrid and the Tinkertown Museum are stops. Others are Bernalillo and Coronado State Monument, Kasha–Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, the Jemez Mountains, Isleta Pueblo, Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, and Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge and the Very Large Array in the south.

Sources

• Wikivoyage contributors, Albuquerque, Wikivoyage, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Photos credited in their captions: MARELBU (CC BY 3.0), AdamSelby (CC BY-SA 3.0), Daniel Schwen (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Bill Johnson (CC BY-SA 4.0). Changed here: condensed and rewritten, with listings, maps, phone numbers, hours and prices left out; hubnx’s version stays CC BY-SA 4.0; rewritten in hubnx’s own words.