Granddaughter Holly rests after rock climbing in the Sandia Mountains outside of Albuquerque, N.M.
Granddaughter Holly, and her mother, Saro, on Sandia Crest, as the tram heads back down the mountain.
One of the joys of life is taking people you love to places you love.
I had that joy last weekend when I took my granddaughter Holly to see the Sandia Mountains outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
As a high school student in the old days in Albuquerque, my buddies and I had many adventures exploring these mountains. One of them involved a fractured skull (not mine) and a mountain rescue team.
In those days, hiking in was the only way to get a good look at the towering rock shard cliffs and steep, tree-lined canyons of that rugged mountain range. It was an arduous task, but well worth the effort. Patient climbers could be rewarded with glimpses of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep clattering down the cliffs, herds of deer, and even a black bear or a mountain lion.
Years after I left Albuquerque, one of the world’s longest trams was built from the foothills of the mountain, elevation about one mile, to Sandia Crest, the top of the mountain, elevation about two miles.
The tram opened spectacular vistas to everyone willing to fork over $20 for a round-trip ticket.
When Holly and I, along with other family members, got on the tram in Albuquerque, the temperature was in the high 90s. When we arrived at the top 20 minutes later, it was a delightful 62 degrees.
We hiked partway down the La Luz trial, an 8-mile trail that winds its way to the bottom of the mountain. Holly wanted to do some rock-climbing, so we left the trail, and headed straight up the mountain, finding our way through crevasses in the cliffs, and battling through tightly-grown scrub oak. It was a short distance to the top, but we still felt a sense of accomplishment when we arrived, scratched by the scrub oak and panting in the thin air.
From the look in Holly’s eyes, I felt confident that a small chip of my love for these mountains had been passed along to the next generation.
Then we walked back to the tram, and the restaurant at its terminal, and packed in plenty of food to make up for any calories we had burned.
