A letter from a local
High desert, higher mountain, zero pretense.
The Sandia foothills trails start where the east-side neighborhoods stop — fifteen minutes from downtown and you're on granite-studded singletrack watching the whole Rio Grande valley light up. The mountain itself goes to 10,678 feet; the tram gets you there in fifteen minutes when you'd rather not earn it.
The Bosque trail runs flat and shady along the river for 16 miles through the middle of the city. Sandia Peak's little ski area hangs on the back side about an hour up; real snow years, locals grin and go. Climbers get the Sandia's granite and, an hour north, the basalt of White Rock.
Balloons over the mesa in October, green chile on everything, a national-lab economy that pays coastal salaries at desert prices. Burque doesn't perform for anyone. That's its charm.
— Lena