Back in Duke City, Albuquerque, NM…

Since we decided to skip Roswell NM we drove a bit longer than we normally like to do and went about 240 miles into a park called Hidden Valley RV Park. We chose this park mainly because it was in up the Sandia Mountains which meant daytime highs would be in the mid 80’s during the heat wave bringing record temperatures in New Mexico. For example, the day we were left Lakewood NM it was supposed to be 108  degrees… Yikes!!!

We pulled into Hidden Valley RV Park to find a lot of very long and very narrow sites. After looking around a bit we found one that was somewhat wider than most of the others which gave us a least a small front yard. This park is not one of the nicer parks we have visited but it will at least keep us out of the heat till we feel it wise to head back down in the desert. 

 

One of the first things we did was drive over to the north side of Albuquerque and visit with some of our RV’ing friends Catherine and Jo Beth of Living the Dream. They said they had found a quirky little brewery and wanted us to meet them for a late lunch… well since it was at a brewery and it was a chance to see some of our friends, we were all in! We pulled into the dirt lot noticing the brightly painted doors and signs on tall wooden fences (behind which we could hear chickens)and decided this was indeed going to be fun.

Inside we saw Catherine and Jo Beth and they were sitting at the coolest table. An artist had made the chairs all look like characters from the series “Breaking Bad” which was mostly filmed in Albuquerque. As we reacquainted we ordered up some great pub food (see their blog for more details). It was really fun to see them again and we know for sure that our paths will cross again… cheers until then Catherine and Jo Beth!

    

That same day we drove up into the Sandia Mountains to a trail that took us up to Sandia Cave. Part of the adventure was the rough dirt road that we drove on several miles up to the Sandia Cave trailhead. A short hike of about 2.5 to 3 miles round trip took us up in elevation along a trail that was carved out of the mountainside and ended at a spiral staircase leading up into the cave.

This was a really nice hike despite the graffiti left behind from some less than environmentally conscious individuals. The cave itself was cool but you could tell it was a kids hangout when school was not in session (or maybe when it was). There were some great lookouts with vistas way out into the desert floor below… All in all it was a very nice hike.

We will be in the Albuquerque area for a while as I have a doctor’s appointment scheduled then we will be moving north again but we are not sure which route we will take yet…