Albuquerque, NM ~ The Turquoise Trail

Along the Turquoise Trail is where I grew up. It is in the mountains between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Every trip back to this area feels like going home. The beauty of the terrain in this state is spectacular and there is an abundance of sites to see and land to explore. More importantly and, let me tell you, the food in this state is some of the best in the Country. It is particularly unique to this area and is my comfort food in its purest sense.

Our first stop out of the airport in Albuquerque is always Los Cuates Restaurant. It’s been there for over 40 years and the food is mouth-watering authentic New Mexican cuisine.

The Turquoise Trail

Fueled up and ready to explore, we head to the Sandia Mountains. The Sandia’s are part of the Rocky Mountains and they line the east side of the city. We headed out the I 40E to Hwy 14N towards Cedar Crest thru the Tijeras Canyon Pass and onto The Turquoise Trail. This canyon separates the Sandia Mountains to the North from the Manzano mountains to the south.

Once you turn on the North 14, you”ll travel about 6 miles to Sandia Peak road. A left turn there and as you head up the mountain, you are entering the Cibola National Forest. This is one of our favorite forests to explore, because it’s where I grew up and holds a huge part of my heart.

There are hundreds of mies of hiking trails in the Cibola. One of the really fun and easy hikes is the Sandia Cave hike. The views from here are breathtaking and it’s a fun cave hike. The road to the parking is rough but most cars can get up albeit slowly. The hike is just over two miles round trip but take your time and enjoy the views.

After hiking we continued up the Sandia Crest Byway towards the peak. This is the highest byway in the Southwest and reaches the peak at 10,378 ft. At the top is the Sandia Peak Ski area and the Sandia Peak Tramway.

The Tram was built in the 1960’s and tis the worlds second largest. It travels up and down the east side of the Sandia’s for 2.7 miles to the peak. The views are stunning and you get a 11,000 square-mile panoramic view of the Rio Grande Valley and this part of the Land of Enchantment.

Historic Old Town Plaza

We made our way back to the city early in the evening and headed to the Historic Old Town Plaza. We ate at another of our favorite restaurants here and the oldest restaurant in Albuquerque, La Placeita. It’s an old hacienda style restaurant with a giant oak tree growing thru the middle of it.

The plaza in Old town Albuquerque is about 10 blocks of adobe buildings with retail shops, restaurants, art galleries and museums and some beautiful Navajo artifacts and jewelry. In fact, you could spend a whole day here enjoying the Plaza. In the winter and around the holidays you can take a carriage ride around the town in horse drawn buggies.

Next up, we are taking the back road to Santa Fe for more exploring along The Turquoise Trail and then to Taos and Shiprock.