Sandia Crest, also known locally as Sandia Peak or simply as the Crest, is a mountain ridge that, at , is the highpoint of the

Sandia–Manzano Mountains The Sandia–Manzano Mountains are a substantial mountain area that defines the eastern edge of the middle Rio Grande valley of central New Mexico. They are not only an attractive backdrop to greater Albuquerque, the largest metropolitan area in ...

, 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 in ...

Bernalillo County Bernalillo County () is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Mexico.Bernalillo ...

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

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 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. 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. Th ...

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 in ...

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 w ...

. The Crest features a viewing area with a shop and visitor center, telecommunications transmitters, the popular La Luz Trail, 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 Sandia Peak Ski Area, originally La Madera Ski Area, is a ski resort located in the Sandia Mountains in northeast Bernalillo County, New Mexico, United States, immediately northeast of the city of Albuquerque. It is part of a Special Use Permit ...

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 o ...

, which is the longest aerial tramway in the Americas.

Etymology

Sandia Crest is named for its host range, the

. ''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 varieti ...

" 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 conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single ...

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 language, Tiwa: Tuf Shur Tia) is a federally recognized tribe of Native Americans in the United States, Native American Pueblo people inhabiting a Indian reservation, reservation of the same name in the eastern Rio Grande Ri ...

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

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

. 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. They ...

s #1-3 service the Crest. Tram_to_Sandia_Peak,_Albuquerque,_New_Mexico,_USA

The ski resort also features the

which takes riders on a 15 minute "flight" from the eastern edge of

to Sandia Peak. It is the longest aerial tramway in the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

, 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 of ...

, 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 connects the Crest to the city, and the Grand Enchantment Trail traverses the crest from north to south.

History

In 1819, then Governor of Santa Fe de Nuevo México 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 William Dawbney Nordhaus (born May 31, 1941) is an American economist, a Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University, best known for his work in economic modeling and climate change, and one of the 2 recipients of the 2018 Nobel Memoria ...

) and famous balloonist

Ben Abruzzo Benjamin L. "Ben" Abruzzo (June 9, 1930 – February 11, 1985) was an American balloonist and businessman who helped make Albuquerque, New Mexico, into an international ballooning center. He was part of the balloon crews that made the first ...

. 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

, the first recorded use of "Sandia Peak". Kiwanis Cabin - Sandia Crest

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

. 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

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 wi ...

west of Placitas, a stretch now served by New Mexico State Road 165 via Capulin Canyon. The Albuquerque Wildlife and Conservation Association, the

New Mexico Department of Game and Fish The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish (NMDGF) is a state-level government department within the New Mexico Governor's Cabinet that is responsible for maintaining wildlife and fish in the state. The NMDGF undertakes protection, conservation and ...

, 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 ima ...

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 German, High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label=Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking po ...

, 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 atop the Crest. The display remained on the Crest for 18 months, from April 23, 2005 to October 6, 2006. In 2017, the

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 A zip-line, zip line, zip-wire, flying fox, or death slide is a pulley suspended on a cable, usually made of stainless steel, mounted on a slope. It is designed to enable cargo or a person propelled by gravity to travel from the top to the bott ...

, and a

mountain coaster A summer toboggan is an amusement or recreational ride which uses a bobsled-like sled or cart to run down a track usually built on the side of a hill. There are two main types: an Alpine coaster or mountain coaster is a type of roller 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. Sandia Crest above the clouds

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 Chihua ...

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 ...

. 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 whe ...

overlaying the

Sandia granite The Sandia granite is a pluton in central New Mexico. It has a radiometric age of 1453±12 Ma, corresponding to the Calymmian period. Description The Sandia granite is prominently exposed along the east flank of the Rio Grande rift, with almo ...

, with a radiometric age of 300±12 Ma.

Ecology

Sandia Crest is located in the

'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 exta ...

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 range ...

, 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 the ...

. Fauna that frequent the crest include

elk The elk (''Cervus canadensis''), also known as the wapiti, is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. The common ...

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 bears,

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 of ...

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 Co ...

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 IUC ...

s, and various species of

squirrel Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae, a family that includes small or medium-size rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels (including chipmunks and prairie dogs, among others), and flying squirrels. Squ ...

. 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 niche as ...

s, Steller's jays,

pinyon jay The pinyon jay (''Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus'') is a species of jay, and is the only member of the genus ''Gymnorhinus''. Native to Western North America, the species ranges from central Oregon to northern Baja California, and eastward as far as ...

s, 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 wren The canyon wren (''Catherpes mexicanus'') is a small North American songbird of the wren family Troglodytidae. It is resident throughout its range and is generally found in arid, rocky cliffs, outcrops, and canyons. It is a small bird that is h ...

Climbing

Sandia Crest is a popular

rock climbing Rock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up, across, or down natural rock formations. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a usually pre-defined route without falling. Rock climbing is a physically and ...

destination. Named climbing structures include the ''Shield'', the ''Needle'', and the ''Thumb''.

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