Once again, everyone chose how to best spend the third day of the Oil Drip. Debbie and myself, accompanied by Lloyd and Michael decided to visit Albuquerque - about 60 miles to the south of Santa Fe. We packed in a full day with visits to the Wildlife West Nature Park, Old Town Albuquerque, and Sandia Crest.
We chose the backroad route to east Albuquerque known as the Turquoise Trail Scenic Byway which passes through a number of the old Turquoise mining towns including Madrid and Cerrillos. This turned out to be a very enjoyable drive on a generally well-paved road through a scenic landscape - a great contrast from the freeway we had used previously between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. We arrived at the Wildlife West Nature Park a little after 10am. The park is devoted to taking care of native animals and birds that have been rescued, and for one reason or another cannot be returned to the wild.
The animals and birds are housed in large fenced enclosures on a huge property, and a paved trail routes visitors from one to the next. The trail was about 1.5 long, and we took about 1-1/2 hours to complete it.
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| Map of the trail and all the animals birds to see |
At each enclosure there were tablets describing the animals and the history of how they came to be at the park.
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| An example of the plaques by each enclosure describing the history of the animal |
I took a lot of photographs of the animals and birds at the park - too many to present here, but here are a few of my favorites:
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| The two elk had several acres of space to roam, but fortunately one decided to be curious about us |
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| Lloyd cosying up to one of the Mountain Lions |
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| The second mountain lion watches from a distance |
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| Wile E. Coyote seemed to be doing very nicely! |
I think we all enjoyed the visit and appreciated all that the owners and their sponsors were doing to rescue these animals and birds that would otherwise have little if any chance of survival.
From the Wildlife Park, we drove into Albuquerque to visit the Old Town. It bears some resemblance to Old Town Santa Fe, but on a much smaller scale, with a smaller number of galleries and stores surrounding a Plaza.
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| The Plaza of Old Town Albuquerque |
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| Debbie explores one of the large art galleries off the Plaza |
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| Some of the nicest areas were the small alleys and back streets surrounding the Plaza |
After some light refreshments we left downtown Albuquerque for the drive to Sandia Crest at the top of the mountain overlooking the city and surrounding plains. Starting from the Turquoise trail the road to the summit is 13 miles of switchbacks climbing the 5000 feet from the plain to the summit at 10,300 feet. The views from the summit were spectacular.
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| Lloyd leaves the cars in the parking lot for the short climb to the summit |
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| View from the summit looking west over Albuquerque a mile below |
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| Storm clouds beginning over the valley below |
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| View to the east. At this altitude the fall foliage colors were already beginning to show |
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| Storms coming... |
We descended the mountain and returned to Santa Fe along the Turquoise Trail which was equally enjoyable in the reverse direction. I'd certainly recommend it to anyone who wishes to avoid the freeway traffic between the two cities with little if any penalty in travel time. A perfect day was wrapped up with a wonderful dinner at La Boca with Mary and Drew. Tomorrow we have to pack our bags and move our base to Espanola - 30 minutes or so north of Santa Fe.
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