Sandia Crest, also known locally as Sandia Peak or simply as the Crest,
is a
mountain ridge
A ridge or a mountain ridge is a geographical feature consisting of a chain of mountains or hills that form a continuous elevated crest for an extended distance. The sides of the ridge slope away from the narrow top on either side. The line ...
that, at , is the highpoint of the
Sandia–Manzano Mountains, and is located in the
Sandia Mountains
The Sandia Mountains ( Southern Tiwa: ''Posu gai hoo-oo'', Keres: ''Tsepe,'' Navajo: ''Dził Nááyisí''; Tewa: ''O:ku:p’į'', Northern Tiwa: ''Kep’íanenemą''; Towa: ''Kiutawe'', Zuni: ''Chibiya Yalanne'') are a mountain range located ...
of
Bernalillo County,
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Albuquerque metropolitan area, Tiguex
, Offi ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
. Instead of a true summit or topographic peak, this range climbs to a long ridge line. To the east, the range slopes down from the Crest and merges into the plains below. On the west side of the Crest is a cliff; the range dramatically drops over in elevation over of horizontal distance to the
Rio Grande Valley
The Lower Rio Grande Valley ( es, Valle del Río Grande), commonly known as the Rio Grande Valley or locally as the Valley or RGV, is a region spanning the border of Texas and Mexico located in a floodplain of the Rio Grande near its mouth. The ...
and city of
Albuquerque
Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding i ...
below. It is within the Sandia Ranger District of the
Cibola National Forest
The Cibola National Forest (pronounced SEE-bo-lah) is a 1,633,783 acre (6,611.7 km2) United States National Forest in New Mexico, USA. The name Cibola is thought to be the original Zuni Indian name for their pueblos or tribal lands. The name was ...
. The Crest features a viewing area with a shop and visitor center, telecommunications transmitters, the popular
La Luz Trail
The La Luz Trail (Trail 137) is a popular hiking trail located on the west face of the Sandia Mountains near Albuquerque, New Mexico. The trail begins at the La Luz Trailhead and proceeds approximately eight miles to either Sandia Crest or the Sand ...
, the
Sandia Mountain Wilderness
Sandia Mountain Wilderness, part of Cibola National Forest, is located east of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and comprises much of Sandia Mountains. It became part of the National Wilderness Preservation System in 1978 by an act of the United States ...
, and the summit of
Sandia Peak Ski Area and the
Sandia Peak Tramway
The Sandia Peak Tramway is an aerial tramway located adjacent to Albuquerque, New Mexico. It stretches from the northeast edge of the city to Sandia Peak on the ridge line of the Sandia MountainsThe upper station of the tramway is at a point on ...
, which is the longest aerial tramway in the Americas.
Etymology
Sandia Crest is named for its host range, the
Sandia Mountains
The Sandia Mountains ( Southern Tiwa: ''Posu gai hoo-oo'', Keres: ''Tsepe,'' Navajo: ''Dził Nááyisí''; Tewa: ''O:ku:p’į'', Northern Tiwa: ''Kep’íanenemą''; Towa: ''Kiutawe'', Zuni: ''Chibiya Yalanne'') are a mountain range located ...
. ''Sandía'' means "
watermelon
Watermelon (''Citrullus lanatus'') is a flowering plant species of the Cucurbitaceae family and the name of its edible fruit. A scrambling and trailing vine-like plant, it is a highly cultivated fruit worldwide, with more than 1,000 var ...
" in Spanish, and is popularly believed to be a reference to the reddish color of the mountains at sunset.
["Popular belief holds that the striped appearance of the rocks or the pinkish reflections of the surfaces at sunset led to the name "watermelon mountains" in Spanish." Pearce, T. M. (1965) "Sandia" ''New Mexico place names; a geographical dictionary'' University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM, p. 142]
OCLC 420847
/ref> Also, when viewed from the west, the profile of the mountains is a long ridge, with a thin zone of green conifer
Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All ex ...
s near the top, suggesting the "rind" of the watermelon. However, as Robert Julyan notes: "the most likely explanation is the one believed by the Sandia Pueblo
Sandia Pueblo (; Tiwa: Tuf Shur Tia) is a federally recognized tribe of Native American Pueblo people inhabiting a reservation of the same name in the eastern Rio Grande Rift of central New Mexico. It is one of 19 of New Mexico's Native Amer ...
ans: the Spaniards, when they encountered the Pueblo in 1540, called it Sandia, because they thought the squash gourds growing there were watermelons, and the name Sandia soon was transferred to the mountains east of the pueblo.",
The earliest recorded use of "Sandia Peak" seems to have been from local retired lawyer and skier Robert Nordhaus, who founded La Madera Ski Area in the mountains in 1936. Nordhaus installed the first chairlift to the Crest in 1962, and for the '62–63 ski season, he opened the resort as Sandia Peak Ski Area and applied the name to the summit, a southern spur of the Crest. When Nordhaus opened the tram in 1966, the tram also took the name of "Sandia Peak".
Description
Sandia Crest is a long ridgeline at the highpoint of the Sandia Mountains. The Crest is heavily forested, mostly with spruce and fir. There are communication radio antennae of various radio and television stations situated at the top.
Located on the Crest at the western terminus of Sandia Crest Rd ( NM 536) is a scenic viewing area, the Sandia Crest House, which includes a gift shop, café, visitor center, plaza, parking lot, restrooms, and informational plaques.
Located at the southern spur of the Crest is the summit of Sandia Peak Ski Area. The ski summit is dubbed "Sandia Peak", and features a fine-dining restaurant, TEN 3 (stylized as 10, 3), named for the elevation it is situated at, "ten-three" (). Chairlift
An elevated passenger ropeway, or chairlift, is a type of aerial lift, which consists of a continuously circulating steel wire rope loop strung between two end terminals and usually over intermediate towers, carrying a series of chairs. Th ...
s #1-3 service the Crest.
The ski resort also features the Sandia Peak Tramway
The Sandia Peak Tramway is an aerial tramway located adjacent to Albuquerque, New Mexico. It stretches from the northeast edge of the city to Sandia Peak on the ridge line of the Sandia MountainsThe upper station of the tramway is at a point on ...
which takes riders on a 15 minute "flight" from the eastern edge of Albuquerque
Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding i ...
to Sandia Peak. It is the longest aerial tramway in the Americas, and was the longest in the world from 1966 to 2010. It features the worlds third-longest single span.
The Kiwanis Cabin, the ruins of the cabin of the Kiwanis Group of the Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part o ...
, is located on the Crest between the Sandia Crest House and the ski resort, and is a popular site with hikers. The La Luz Trail
The La Luz Trail (Trail 137) is a popular hiking trail located on the west face of the Sandia Mountains near Albuquerque, New Mexico. The trail begins at the La Luz Trailhead and proceeds approximately eight miles to either Sandia Crest or the Sand ...
connects the Crest to the city, and the Grand Enchantment Trail
The Grand Enchantment Trail (acronym "GET") is a wilderness recreation trail running between Phoenix, Arizona and Albuquerque, New Mexico. It crosses the Arizona Trail and Continental Divide Trail and at Albuquerque it meets the Rio Grande Tra ...
traverses the crest from north to south.
History
In 1819, then Governor of Santa Fe de Nuevo México
Santa Fe de Nuevo México ( en, Holy Faith of New Mexico; shortened as Nuevo México or Nuevo Méjico, and translated as New Mexico in English) was a Kingdom of the Spanish Empire and New Spain, and later a territory of independent Mexico. The ...
Facundo Melgares established a land grant in the mountains, including the town of San Miguel de Carnuel and the San Antonio Pueblo. The land grant used Sandia Crest as its western boundary.
In 1927, the US Forest Service
The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...
completed a dirt road to Sandia Crest. The roadway was paved in 1960 to improve access to La Madera Ski Area, built in 1936 by Robert Nordhaus (a retired lawyer and father of Nobel Prize-winning economist William Nordhaus) and famous balloonist Ben Abruzzo. The new road turned "several hours of potholes and mud to an easy 45 minute drive" to the resort. In 1962 Nordhaus changed the name of the resort to Sandia Peak Ski Area, the first recorded use of "Sandia Peak".
In 1930, the Kiwanis Group of the Civilian Conservation Corps built a stone cabin on the crest in pueblo
In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...
-style architecture, overlooking the Rio Grande Valley
The Lower Rio Grande Valley ( es, Valle del Río Grande), commonly known as the Rio Grande Valley or locally as the Valley or RGV, is a region spanning the border of Texas and Mexico located in a floodplain of the Rio Grande near its mouth. The ...
. The ruins of the cabin are today a popular site with hikers.
in 1962, regional forester Fred H. Kennedy drafted a recreational use plan that would have dramatically developed the Sandia Mountain Wilderness
Sandia Mountain Wilderness, part of Cibola National Forest, is located east of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and comprises much of Sandia Mountains. It became part of the National Wilderness Preservation System in 1978 by an act of the United States ...
for primarily recreational use. Included with the plan was Skyline Drive, a scenic highway that would have run for about from La Madera Ski Area in the south, along the crest line to U.S. Route 85
U.S. Route 85 (US 85) is a north–south United States Highway that travels in the Mountain and Northern Plains states of the United States. The southern terminus of the highway is at the Mexican border in El Paso, Texas, connecting ...
west of Placitas, a stretch now served by New Mexico State Road 165
State Road 165 (NM 165) is a long state highway in the US state of New Mexico. NM 165's western terminus is at Interstate 25 (I-25), U.S. Route 85 (US 85), and US 550 in Bernalillo, and the eastern terminus is at NM 53 ...
via Capulin Canyon. The Albuquerque Wildlife and Conservation Association, the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, and the New Mexico Mountain Club had all registered their opposition by to the plan in 1965. Also included with the plan were roadside recreation areas and three aerial tramways. The routing for Skyline Drive was adjusted twice at an August 8, 1966 public meeting, and by autumn of 1969, of forest along the crest was cleared for the new road. Alarmed locals started a campaign which included postcards and petitions, and successfully halted construction. Author James A. Morris wrote of the construction of the road:
The scar from the road clearing is still visible on the ground and in satellite image
Satellite images (also Earth observation imagery, spaceborne photography, or simply satellite photo) are images of Earth collected by imaging satellites operated by governments and businesses around the world. Satellite imaging companies sell im ...
s as of 2021.
In 1964, Nordhaus was inspired to build an aerial tramway
An aerial tramway, sky tram, cable car, ropeway, aerial tram, telepherique, or seilbahn is a type of aerial lift which uses one or two stationary ropes for support while a third moving rope provides propulsion. With this form of lift, the grip ...
from Albuquerque to the Crest after seeing other trams during a trip to Europe. Bell Engineering of Lucerne
Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label= Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a city in central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital o ...
, Switzerland, was contracted to design and construct the tramway. Construction lasted two years, and was aided by over 5,000 helicopter trips. Testing took an additional 60 days. It entered service on May 7, 1966.
In 2006, the city of Albuquerque celebrated its tricentennial, and installed a display of 300 high-power LED lamps
An LED lamp or LED light bulb is an electric light that produces light using light-emitting diodes (LEDs). LED lamps are significantly more energy-efficient than equivalent incandescent lamps
and can be significantly more efficient than m ...
atop the Crest. The display remained on the Crest for 18 months, from April 23, 2005 to October 6, 2006.
In 2017, the US Forest Service
The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...
adopted plans outlined in the Sandia Peak Ski Co.'s 2016 master plan for a "Four Seasons Activity Area" at the Crest, including a food service yurt
A yurt (from the Turkic languages) or ger ( Mongolian) is a portable, round tent covered and insulated with skins or felt and traditionally used as a dwelling by several distinct nomadic groups in the steppes and mountains of Central Asia ...
, two ziplines, and a mountain coaster (a type of tracked sled ride), to be built in the summer of 2022. When finished, it will provide additional year-around recreation at the ski resort. The coaster would have had a station near the tramway terminal on the Crest. It would have been the first mountain coaster in New Mexico and the southernmost in the US at the time. As of August 2022, reception to the idea of a mountain coaster was mixed, in addition to high costs expected for evaluating the environmental impact on the mountain and the project was currently being shelved.
Geology
The Sandia Mountains are a fault block
Fault blocks are very large blocks of rock, sometimes hundreds of kilometres in extent, created by tectonic and localized stresses in Earth's crust. Large areas of bedrock are broken up into blocks by faults. Blocks are characterized by rela ...
range, on the eastern edge of the Rio Grande rift
The Rio Grande rift is a north-trending continental rift zone. It separates the Colorado Plateau in the west from the interior of the North American craton on the east. The rift extends from central Colorado in the north to the state of Chihu ...
Valley. The Sandias were uplifted in the last ten million years as part of the formation of the Rio Grande rift. They form the eastern boundary of the Albuquerque Basin
The Albuquerque Basin (or Middle Rio Grande Basin) is a structural basin and ecoregion within the Rio Grande rift in central New Mexico. It contains the city of Albuquerque.
Geologically, the Albuquerque Basin is a half-graben that slopes down t ...
. The tilting of the block is most obvious from the Crest since it slopes down gently to the east and drops of dramatically to the west. The Crest consists mainly of an outcrop of limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms wh ...
overlaying the Sandia granite, with a radiometric age of 300±12 Ma.
Ecology
Sandia Crest is located in the Cibola National Forest
The Cibola National Forest (pronounced SEE-bo-lah) is a 1,633,783 acre (6,611.7 km2) United States National Forest in New Mexico, USA. The name Cibola is thought to be the original Zuni Indian name for their pueblos or tribal lands. The name was ...
's Sandia Ranger District. '' Hudsonian Life Zone'' coniferous forest
Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All ex ...
dominates the flora present at the Crest. Tree species present on the crest include Engelmann spruce
''Picea engelmannii'', with the common names Engelmann spruce, white spruce, mountain spruce, and silver spruce, is a species of spruce native to western North America. It is mostly a high-altitude mountain tree but also appears in watered canyon ...
, white fir
''Abies concolor'', the white fir, is a coniferous tree in the pine family Pinaceae. This tree is native to the mountains of western North America, including the Cascade Range and southern Rocky Mountains, and into the isolated mountain ranges ...
, and ponderosa pine
''Pinus ponderosa'', commonly known as the ponderosa pine, bull pine, blackjack pine, western yellow-pine, or filipinus pine is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous regions of western North America. It is t ...
.
Fauna that frequent the crest include elk, mule deer
The mule deer (''Odocoileus hemionus'') is a deer indigenous to western North America; it is named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. Two subspecies of mule deer are grouped into the black-tailed deer.
Unlike the related whit ...
, New Mexico black bear
The American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), also called simply a black bear or sometimes a baribal, is a medium-sized bear endemic to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most widely distributed bear species. American black bear ...
s, raccoon
The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight o ...
s, ring-tailed cat
The ringtail (''Bassariscus astutus'') is a mammal of the raccoon family native to arid regions of North America. It is widely distributed and well adapted to disturbed areas. It has been legally trapped for its fur. It is listed as Least C ...
s, bobcat
The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the red lynx, is a medium-sized cat native to North America. It ranges from southern Canada through most of the contiguous United States to Oaxaca in Mexico. It is listed as Least Concern on the IU ...
s, and various species of squirrel. Birds present include bald eagle
The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same nich ...
s, Steller's jay
Steller's jay (''Cyanocitta stelleri'') is a bird native to western North America and the mountains of Central America, closely related to the blue jay found in eastern North America. It is also known as the long-crested jay, mountain jay, and p ...
s, pinyon jays, various finch
The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where they are usua ...
es, and canyon wrens
Climbing
Sandia Crest is a popular rock climbing destination. Named climbing structures include the ''Shield'', the ''Needle'', and the ''Thumb''.
See also
* List of mountain peaks of New Mexico
This article comprises three sortable tables of major mountain peaksThis article defines a significant summit as a summit with at least of topographic prominence, and a major summit as a summit with at least of topographic prominence. All ...
* Sandia Mountains
The Sandia Mountains ( Southern Tiwa: ''Posu gai hoo-oo'', Keres: ''Tsepe,'' Navajo: ''Dził Nááyisí''; Tewa: ''O:ku:p’į'', Northern Tiwa: ''Kep’íanenemą''; Towa: ''Kiutawe'', Zuni: ''Chibiya Yalanne'') are a mountain range located ...
* Manzano Mountains
The Manzano Mountains are a small mountain range in the central part of the US State of New Mexico. They are oriented north–south and are 30 miles long. The center of the range lies due east of the town of Belen. The name "Manzano" is Spani ...
References
External links
{{authority control
Landforms of Bernalillo County, New Mexico
Mountains of New Mexico
Religious places of the indigenous peoples of North America
Landforms of Sandoval County, New Mexico
Hiking trails in New Mexico
Mountains of Bernalillo County, New Mexico
Mountains of Cibola County, New Mexico