I’m soaring over the treetops, and dogs are coming out on backyard patios to growl up at the fiery roar of a dragon passing overhead. In between blasts of flame, it’s eerily silent, other than those occasional barks. Drifting like a dandelion seed on the wind, we alight briefly on a sandbar in the middle of the Rio Grande before the balloon pilot takes to the wind once again over the rooftops of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Up We Go
Ballooning is a popular pastime in Albuquerque, and every October, the city actually hosts the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta right next to its international balloon museum. I can see desert all the way out to the horizon. The Sandia Mountains lie to the east. To the west, three worn volcano cones break the horizon line. Everything in between is dry and dusty, except for the verdant stripe of the Rio Grande to which Albuquerque clings.A bird’s eye view is one angle on this town—either from a balloon or from the 2.7-mile tramway to the top of the 10,378-foot Sandia Peak in the Cibola National Forest—but there are many other angles on Albuquerque.
