Hiking at Sandia Crest

On Sunday afternoon we drove up to Sandia Crest, the mountain towering over Albuquerque, to do some hiking. Albuquerque sits at 5000 feet above sea level, and Sandia Crest is 10,678 feet (3,255 m), so our 45 minute drive to get there had a lot of uphill going. The views were beautiful and we are planning on going back another weekend or two this summer to do some of the other hikes they had.






I was so excited because on the drive down we got incredible gas mileage! The 2009 Prius we are renting has a mileage screen that tells you your instantaneous miles per gallon, and all your average mpg over 5 minute intervals for the previous 30 minutes. At first it was fun that our mileage screen said that we had gotten 100 mpg for 5 minutes. And then it happened again the following 5 minute interval. And then again and again for the next 40 minutes. We had 40 minutes of 100 mpg :-) For one of the intervals (between 10 and 15 minutes in the photo below) it even seems that we didn't use any gas, just regenerated energy. Nate was the one driving and he made every effort to press as little on the gas as possible as we drove down the mountain.


For the July 4th weekend, we are going do Carlsbad Caverns National Park to visit the caves, and are planning on stopping in Roswell on the way for their annual UFO festival :-) There should be lots of weirdos to people-watch there.