There are times when I whine about Albuquerque’s weather, windstorms, and brown desert landscape. But then along comes one of our many opportunities to hike in the nearby mountains and I think to myself how could there be a more awesome place to live than here where we have this gorgeous range of mountains called the Sandia’s sitting practically in our front yard.
When you talk to anyone who knows anything about hiking in this area, one of the first questions will be if you’ve hiked the La Luz Trail. It’s the premier Albuquerque trail that everyone knows about and hundreds (or maybe even thousands) of people hike every year. That’s one of the main reasons I resisted adding it to my “trails hiked” list. If it’s something that everybody does I’m just ornery enough to want to do the total opposite. There are plenty of trails that ascend the Sandia’s. I couldn’t understand why this one should be so special. Well, I got that question answered today when Lee finally persuaded me that I needed to let him show me the thrills he had experienced several weeks ago when he’d hiked up the La Luz Trail with a couple of friends.
We even did one better today than what Lee had done. When there is a little over a mile of hiking left to reach the Tramway, a spur trail heads up to the Sandia Crest House Gift Shop and Restaurant. It’s an extra half-mile of hiking up and then back down and I would have been happy to bypass it. But Lee wanted to do it, so I agreed. I was happy that we did, not only for the beautiful views from up there, but that we were able to buy ourselves an ice cream treat at the gift shop.
La Luz Trail GPS track on Every Trail
An extra treat for me today was to think that just yesterday I had enjoyed another glorious Sandia Mountain hike, this one on the back side of the Crest looking south and east from where we were standing at the top today. The Crest House and Tramway Terminal are heavily populated with sightseers, since this part of the mountain is accessible by road and/or tramway. I was glad to see the groups of people enjoying the views from the top today, but I thought how the vast majority miss out on so much when they don’t get the thrill of climbing up one of the many wonderful Sandia Mountain trails.
GPS track of yesterday’s hike in the Sandia Mountains
Living Wonderously 