The
Sandia Mountains (
TiwaTiwa and Tigua may refer to:* Tiwa languages, a Tanoan pueblo language group in New Mexico;* Tiwa people, a Tanoan pueblo people in central and northern New Mexico;* Tigua Pueblo, also known as Ysleta del Sur Pueblo....
(Pueblo) name
posu gai hoo-oo, "where water slides down arroyo") are a
mountain rangeA mountain range is a chain of mountains bordered by highlands or separated from other mountains by passes or valleys. Individual mountains within the same mountain range do not necessarily have the same geology, though they often do; they may be a mix of different orogeny, for example volcanoes,...
located in
BernalilloBernalillo County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is located within the Albuquerque, New Mexico Metropolitan Statistical Area and had a population of 556,678 at the 2000 census; in 2007, the population was estimated at 635,139...
and
SandovalSandoval County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Mexico. The population was estimated at 113,772, a 25.6% increase from the population of 89,908 recorded at the 2000 census. The county seat is Bernalillo. It is part of the Albuquerque, New Mexico Metropolitan Statistical...
counties, immediately to the northeast of the city of
AlbuquerqueAlbuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 521,999 as of July 1, 2008, according to U.S. census estimates, and ranks as...
in
New MexicoNew Mexico is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. Inhabited by Native American populations for many centuries, it has also been part of the Imperial Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain, part of Mexico, and a U.S. territory. Among U.S...
in the southwestern
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The range is largely within the
Cibola National ForestThe Cibola National Forest is a United States National Forest in western and central New Mexico, USA. The forest also manages four National Grasslands that stretch from northeastern New Mexico eastward into the Texas Panhandle and western Oklahoma. It is administered by the United States Forest...
, and part of the range is protected as the
Sandia Mountain WildernessSandia Mountain Wilderness, part of Cibola National Forest, is located east of Albuquerque, New Mexico. It became part of the National Wilderness Preservation System in 1978 by an act of the United States Congress and has a total of 37,877 acres ....
. It is home to the Sandia Peak Ski Area. Its highest point is
Sandia Crest, .
Sandía means
watermelon in
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
, and is popularly believed to be a reference to the reddish color of the mountains at sunset.
The
Sandia Mountains (
TiwaTiwa and Tigua may refer to:* Tiwa languages, a Tanoan pueblo language group in New Mexico;* Tiwa people, a Tanoan pueblo people in central and northern New Mexico;* Tigua Pueblo, also known as Ysleta del Sur Pueblo....
(Pueblo) name
posu gai hoo-oo, "where water slides down arroyo") are a
mountain rangeA mountain range is a chain of mountains bordered by highlands or separated from other mountains by passes or valleys. Individual mountains within the same mountain range do not necessarily have the same geology, though they often do; they may be a mix of different orogeny, for example volcanoes,...
located in
BernalilloBernalillo County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is located within the Albuquerque, New Mexico Metropolitan Statistical Area and had a population of 556,678 at the 2000 census; in 2007, the population was estimated at 635,139...
and
SandovalSandoval County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Mexico. The population was estimated at 113,772, a 25.6% increase from the population of 89,908 recorded at the 2000 census. The county seat is Bernalillo. It is part of the Albuquerque, New Mexico Metropolitan Statistical...
counties, immediately to the northeast of the city of
AlbuquerqueAlbuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 521,999 as of July 1, 2008, according to U.S. census estimates, and ranks as...
in
New MexicoNew Mexico is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. Inhabited by Native American populations for many centuries, it has also been part of the Imperial Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain, part of Mexico, and a U.S. territory. Among U.S...
in the southwestern
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The range is largely within the
Cibola National ForestThe Cibola National Forest is a United States National Forest in western and central New Mexico, USA. The forest also manages four National Grasslands that stretch from northeastern New Mexico eastward into the Texas Panhandle and western Oklahoma. It is administered by the United States Forest...
, and part of the range is protected as the
Sandia Mountain WildernessSandia Mountain Wilderness, part of Cibola National Forest, is located east of Albuquerque, New Mexico. It became part of the National Wilderness Preservation System in 1978 by an act of the United States Congress and has a total of 37,877 acres ....
. It is home to the Sandia Peak Ski Area. Its highest point is
Sandia Crest, .
Sandía means
watermelon in
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
, and is popularly believed to be a reference to the reddish color of the mountains at sunset. Also, when viewed from the west, the profile of the mountains is a long ridge, with a thin zone of green conifers near the top, suggesting the "rind" of the watermelon. However, as Robert Julyan notes, "the most likely explanation is the one believed by the Sandia Indians: the Spaniards, when they encountered the Pueblo in 1540, called it Sandia, because they thought the squash growing there were watermelons, and the name Sandia soon was transferred to the mountains east of the pueblo." He also notes that the Sandia Pueblo Indians call the mountain
Bien Mur, "big mountain."
Layout and neighboring ranges
The Sandias are a small range, consisting of a single north-south ridge, which rises to two
major summits: Sandia Crest and
South Sandia Peak, . The range measures approximately 17 miles (26 km) north-south, and the width in the east-west direction varies from 4 to 8 miles (6 to 12 km). The west side of the range is steep and rugged, with a number of sheer rock walls and towers near Sandia Crest. The east side has a gentler slope.
The Sandias are part of a single larger geologic unit, the
Sandia-Manzano MountainsThe Sandia-Manzano Mountains are a substantial mountain area that defines the eastern edge of the middle Rio Grande valley of central New Mexico...
. The other part consists of the
Manzano MountainsThe Manzano Mountains are a small mountain range in the central part of the US State of New Mexico. They are oriented north-south and are about 40 miles long. The center of the range lies about 25 miles southeast of Albuquerque, and the northern foothills are just a few miles east of the edge of...
which lie to the south of the Sandias. The two ranges are separated by
Tijeras CanyonTijeras Canyon is a prominent canyon in the central part of the US state of New Mexico. Tijeras Canyon is often referred to by locals as the I-40 Canyon after the major highway that traverses it, linking Albuquerque and points east. It separates the Sandia Mountains to the north from the Manzano...
, which leads to a historically important pass; the canyon is traversed by
Interstate 40Interstate 40 is a major west-east Interstate Highway in the United States. Its western terminus is at Interstate 15 in Barstow, California; its eastern terminus is at a concurrency of U.S. Route 117 and North Carolina Highway 132 in Wilmington, North Carolina. Much of the western portion of I-40,...
, following the route of historic
U.S. Route 66U.S. Route 66 was a highway in the U.S. Highway System. One of the original U.S. highways, Route 66, US Highway 66, was established on November 11, 1926. However, road signs did not go up until the following year...
. The mountain range is considered a bioherm, an ancient barrier reef.
The Sandias are the highest range in the immediate vicinity, and are well-separated from the higher
Sangre de Cristo MountainsThe Sangre de Cristo Mountains are the southernmost subrange of the Rocky Mountains. They are located in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado in the United States...
. This gives Sandia Crest a relatively high
topographic prominenceIn topography, prominence, also known as autonomous height, relative height, shoulder drop , or prime factor , is a concept used in the categorization of hills and mountains, also known as peaks...
of . Lying to the east and northeast of the Sandias are two smaller ranges, the Ortiz Mountains and the San Pedro Mountains.
The Sandia Mountains are home to the world's longest tramway, which is long. Over this distance the tram cars ascend over feet. The average speed of the tram car is , and the length of the ride is approximately 15 minutes.
Geology
The Sandia Mountains are a
fault blockFault-block landforms are formed when large areas of bedrock are widely broken up by faults creating large vertical displacements of continental crust....
range, on the eastern edge of the
Rio Grande RiftThe Rio Grande Rift is a rift valley extending north from Mexico, near El Paso, Texas through New Mexico into central Colorado. The upper Rio Grande flows south following the rift valley, but did not incise it....
Valley. The Sandias were uplifted in the last 10 million years as part of the formation of the Rio Grande Rift. The core of the range consists of Sandia
GraniteGranite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite has a medium to coarse texture, occasionally with some individual crystals larger than the groundmass forming a rock known as porphyry. Granites can be pink to dark gray or even black, depending on their...
, approximately 1.5 billion years old (there is also some
metamorphic rockMetamorphic rock is the result of the transformation of an existing rock type, the protolith, in a process called metamorphism, which means "change in form". The protolith is subjected to heat and pressure causing profound physical and/or chemical change...
of age 1.7 billion years). This is topped by a relatively thin layer (approximately 300 feet/100 meters) of sedimentary rock (mostly
limestoneLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geologic record...
, and some
sandstoneSandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains. Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any color, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow,...
) of
PennsylvanianThe Pennsylvanian is in the ICS geologic timescale the youngest subperiod or upper subsystem of the Carboniferous period. It lasted from roughly to Ma . As with most other geochronologic units, the rock beds that define the Pennsylvanian are well identified, but the exact date of the...
age (circa 300 million years ago).
PotassiumPotassium is the chemical element with the symbol K , atomic number 19, and atomic mass 39.0983. Potassium was first isolated from potash...
-
feldsparFeldspars are a group of rock-forming tectosilicate minerals which make up as much as 60% of the Earth's crust....
(K-spar) crystals embedded within the Sandia granite give the mountains their distinct pink color.
Ecology
The Sandias encompass four different named
life zones due to the large elevation change, and the resulting changes in temperature and amount of precipitation, from base to top. The grassland at the western base of the mountain (the edge of the city of Albuquerque) is part of the
Upper Sonoran Zone. From elevation to , the Upper Sonoran Zone continues, but notable differences occur: one first finds a zone of primarily juniper, then a mixed Piñon-Juniper zone. From 7,200 to , in the
Transition Zone, Ponderosa Pine dominates. From 7,800 to , a mixture of conifers occurs in the
Canadian Zone. Finally, from to Sandia Crest at , spruce and fir dominate the
Hudsonian Zone. (All zone boundary elevations are approximate.)
Access and recreation
There are two easy ways to reach the top of the Sandias. The
Sandia Peak TramwayThe Sandia Peak Tramway, located adjacent to Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, is the world's longest passenger aerial tramway. It also has the world's third longest single span...
ascends from the west side to a point on the crestline about south of Sandia Crest, at the top of the Sandia Peak Ski Area, which is located on the east side of the mountains. A road (NM 536) from the east provides access to the bottom of the ski area and also to the Sandia Crest itself, where there is a gift shop, restaurant, scenic overlook, and a large electronic communication site with numerous towers and antennas.
The Sandia Crest Scenic Byway is also a popular path for motorcycle riders with its miles of winding road to the summit.
The Sandia Mountains are the most visited range in New Mexico.
Numerous
hikingHiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often on hiking trails. It is such a popular activity that there are numerous hiking organizations worldwide. The health benefits of different types of hiking have been confirmed in studies...
trails exist on both sides of the range, such as the popular
La Luz TrailThe La Luz Trail is a popular hiking trail located on the west face of the Sandia Mountains near Albuquerque, New Mexico. The trails begins at the La Luz Trailhead and proceeds approximately eight miles to either Sandia Crest or the Sandia Peak Tramway. The hike is strenuous, with of elevation...
and
Crest Trail. Much of the west side of the range is included in the
Sandia Mountain WildernessSandia Mountain Wilderness, part of Cibola National Forest, is located east of Albuquerque, New Mexico. It became part of the National Wilderness Preservation System in 1978 by an act of the United States Congress and has a total of 37,877 acres ....
; the trails on that side are steeper, and water is very scarce. Numerous picnic and recreation sites can be found on NM 536. These sites, along with some sites on the west face of the Sandias, require a $3 daily use/parking permit as part of the National Fee Program. There are no developed campgrounds in the Sandias.
The rock walls and pinnacles on the west side of the range provide abundant
rock climbingRock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up or across natural rock formations or man-made rock walls. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a pre-defined route...
opportunities, from
boulderingBouldering is a style of rock climbing undertaken without a rope and normally limited to very short climbs over a crash pad so that a fall will not result in serious injury. It is typically practised on large natural boulders or artificial boulders in gyms and outdoor urban areas...
and top-roping to multiday big wall climbs on the Shield, the largest rock feature on the mountain. However the long hikes (often off-trail) required to reach many of the climbs, and the variable quality of rock (often poor), prevent the Sandias from being a major climbing destination.
History
The Sandias contain a location notable for prehistoric archaeology: the
Sandia Cave is believed to have been inhabited 10000 to 12000 years ago by the Sandia Man. The cave can be accessed via a 1/2 mile trail in Las Huertas Canyon, on the northeast side of the range, near
Placitas, New MexicoPlacitas is a census-designated place in Sandoval County, New Mexico, United States. As of the 2000 census, the CDP population was 3,452. It is part of the Albuquerque Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
.
Ancestral and early
PuebloPueblos are traditional communities of Native Americans in the southwestern United States of America. The communities are recognized worldwide for their adobe buildings, which are sometimes called "pueblos"...
peoples have lived in the Sandia Mountains area for thousands of years. Examples of previous Pueblo settlements, now unoccupied, include Tijeras Pueblo and Pa'ako Pueblo, both founded around 700 years ago.
Sandia PuebloSandia Pueblo is a tribe of Native American Pueblo people inhabiting a 101.114 km² reservation of the same name in the eastern Rio Grande Valley of central New Mexico, located three miles south of Bernalillo off Highway 85 in southern Sandoval County and northern Bernalillo County...
is a modern pueblo, abutting the Sandia Mountains on the northwest side of the range. Some of the foothills of the range are on Sandia Pueblo land; there have been disputes in the past between the Pueblo, the Forest Service, and private landowners over rights to various parts of the range. The people of Sandia Pueblo consider the mountains a sacred place.
External links