I mentioned the Sandia Crest tram in my last post. The Sandia Resort & Casino (map) is approximately 5,300 feet above sea level. The tram is up the road from here at 6,559 feet above sea level. It’s the longest aerial tramway in North America – the third longest in the world. It tops out at Sandia Peak at an elevation of 10,378 feet above sea level. It was built by a Swiss company in 1966. The normal speed of the ascent is 12 mph – it takes about 15 minutes to reach the top.
The weather gods scuttled our trip up the tramway. The peaks of the Sandia mountain range were socked in by low cloud cover all day. There’s no sense in riding the tram up the mountain if all you can do is stare into a fog bank.
Sandia Mountains to the east of us socked in
Our free parking at the Sandia Resort & Casino was terrific. It’s quiet and the employees are very friendly. The views are nice. Ozark loved watching the rabbits on the trails by our coach. She would sit in a window and stare at them – then she would jump down and run into the bedroom, hop on the bed and watch them from the bedroom window as they moved down the trail.
Although it’s just a parking lot, the scenery is nice. Most of the land around us is undeveloped except for the golf course. Donna went for a walk in-between rain showers on Tuesday and enjoyed her hike. At one point, she cut through an employee parking lot. Security caught up with her and told her that only employees were allowed to access the lot – she got kicked out!
View to the west of us looking down at Albuquerque
We will definitely take advantage of this place the next time we pass through Albuquerque.
Late Tuesday afternoon, we saw an Alpine Coach with Texas tags pull into the parking lot. The driver drove quickly around the perimeter of the lot, then parked in front of us. He appeared to be on a mission. He unhooked the black Jeep he was towing behind his rig, then leveled the coach and put the slides out. Then he and his wife (I presume) got into the Jeep and left.
On Wednesday morning, they left early in their Jeep again, so we never had a chance to meet them. I think their Alpine is a 2006 model year judging by the paint scheme.
Alpine parking area
We walked to the casino for their breakfast buffet. It cost $8.95 per person and has everything you could imagine for breakfast – even eggs and omelettes cooked to order. I stuffed myself trying out too many items and getting my money’s worth.
Three days a week, they have a lunch buffet special for people 55 and older – all you can eat for five dollars! We saw a long line of people waiting for the lunch special to open at 10:00am. On Friday and Saturday nights, they have a seafood buffet that includes crab legs, shellfish, salmon and more. It costs $25, but if you have their players card, you get five dollars off. We were told the line gets so long, the wait can be over an hour for the seafood buffet.
We packed up and pulled out of Sandia Resort & Casino a little before noon. We drove down I-25 to I-40 west. Our destination was 19 miles away – the High Desert RV Park. We drove past the Pilot/Flying J travel center where I filled our tank on Monday. We checked in and set up. This park is clean and the setting is nice with open, undeveloped land around us. The sites aren’t level though. I had to place 12″x12″x2″ wood pads under my rear tires. I used four pads to support all four tires. I posted about the importance of this here. I used the pads so the rear tires would still be in contact after I used the leveling jacks to raise the rear of the coach. I don’t like sites that slope down in the rear.
It’s windy this morning. Donna is hoping to go for a bike ride. With the wind and hills around here, it’s going to be challenging. We’ll spend a week here, then move to Larry and Ruth’s place in Albuquerque to begin our next adventure crewing for the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.