Albuquerque, NM

The growing village soon to become Albuquerque was named by the provincial governor Francisco Cuervo y Valdes in honor of Francisco, Duke of Albuquerque who was viceroy of New Spain from 1653 to 1660. The name of which derived from the Latin albus quercus meaning "white oak".
 This name was probably in reference to the prevalence of cork oaks in the region, which have a white wood when the bark is removed.
Albuquerque was founded in 1706 as the Spanish colonial outpost of Villa de Alburquerque Present-day Albuquerque retains much of its historical Spanish cultural heritage.
 Albuquerque was incorporated as a town in 1885, with Henry N Jaffa its first mayor, and it was incorporated as a city in 1891.

The Sandia Mountains
Sandía means watermelon in Spanish and is popularly believed to be a reference to the reddish color of the mountains at sunset.

We enjoyed riding the tramway up the mountain,

 Beautiful painted desert in San Felipe,  with colors of red, purple, yellow and green.

 These are all taken at what use to be the Ball Ranch, of the ball canning company, now owned and run by a land management.


The red rock jutting out of the mountain looks like a work of art.

 Wild horses on the property were brought in by the Spanish in the Mid to Late 1500's, they are still the same family of horses, living and surviving in the desert still.

 There was a mare that had recently given birth to a fowl, it was in the trench, not seen here but she was watching us and guarding it, making sure we wouldn't hurt it.










 Amazing rock formations that had so many levels of rock and stone, a science dream.

Shell fossils from the ancient sea beds that use to be here, the land here was amazing, old sea beds, old volcanic lava seams, rock, petrified wood from ancient trees and minerals everywhere.  

Some of the petroglyphs that are on the land, they ranged from extremely old all the way to ones from 1913, I really enjoyed our trip here, so many things living in a land where it would seem no life should, how many uses all the plants, trees and minerals have, this area truly shows you how wondrous our planet really is.