Yesterday was unbelievable. We headed south to Albuquerque to take the Sandia Peak Tramway to the Sandia Crest. The mountains out here are definitely a different animal than the ones back in the southeast though both are beautiful. The SPT is the world’s longest tramway at 2.7 miles. The peak is a breathtaking 10,378 feet up. We drove through very heavy winds to get there and I figured that the tram would be closed due to high winds. When we got to the tram the winds were only 1mph on that side of the mountain so our cable car trip was on. The tram moves fast as it only takes 15 minutes to go up.

I didn’t do too much photographing today, but I will definitely share more from the trip once we’re back in South Carolina. Right now I have to go get ready for our dinner reservations at La Fonda hotel.

Thanks for looking…here’s the last from New Mexico. :(

That little spec is the tram car…this place is huge!

The clouds were rolling over the mountains near by in a display that one of the tram operators said she had not seen come so close in all the years she had worked there. It was like a waterfall the way they were cascading over the peaks. They eventually made it to us making visibility pretty low and dropping the temperature to the 20 degree mark. The plants seemed to instantly freeze as well as my camera lens. Heh…it had a hard time focusing and I had ice in my beard and honcho stache.

A self portrait before the icy beard.

This was our view for the ride back down. Unbelievable and pics really don’t do it justice. We were above the airplanes.

Our carriage back to reality awaited.

We leave out of here at about 5:30am to head to the Albuquerque airport in the morning. See everyone back home in the Charleston area soon.

-JG

Yesterday was really cool. Jessica and I went to the Bandalier. This is a place where cave dwelling native Americans lived. You can Google it for more information, but if you ever visit New Mexico it really is a must see. On to some pics. I had to cut these down. There were some others that were really good but were plagued by a giant piece of dust on the censor and I’m not willing to spend the time cloning it out in Photoshop at the moment, so I’ll share those some time after we’re back in Charleston.

One of many gorgeous views at the Bandalier.

These entrances are everywhere out there and you are allowed to climb up the ladders too!

Geology Rocks!

Jessica fell on a cactus while photographing it. I’ve got pictures to post of that too. :)

Awwwww.

At the bottom of all the awesome rocks and caves is a stream that flows through a beautiful setting straight out of West Virginia or something. New Mexico really is the “Land of Enchantment”.

Jessica and I climbed up the 140+ feet to check out the “alcove house”. This was a huge cave in the side of the cliff where religious ceremonies and everyday living sans Martha Stewart took place. It was a scary climb, but breathtaking once we reached the top.

This was from inside the “kiva” in the alcove house. So cool.

We made it back to Santa Fe in time to watch the sunset from our condo. NM is definitely one of my all time favorite places to be. I’m pretty bummed that tomorrow is our last day here.

-JG

So I had planned on writing out a bunch of stuff like some kind of traveling writer, but I’m no writer it turns out. Here are some photos from yesterday. I at least filled in the captions fer ya.

We went to a little town in the middle of nowhere called Chimayo and met this good Equine buddy. Jessica scratched his chin and he thanked her.

Chimayo is a Holy place known for its healing dirt found in the church there. These stone structures were really pretty along the creek. A lot of the photos you see out here are sepia toned, so I thought I’d join the club. :)

That’s my new wife there.

This church was beautiful. There were no photos allowed inside, but there were crutches all along the walls from people whom had been healed by the miracle dirt.

After we left Chimayo, we drove forever to Taos and found a Lotaburger…New Mexico’s best fast food restaraunt that serves green chile cheeseburgers.

This was pretty awesome. We drove past a little place called “Love Apple”. A photo was a must even though it was only a drive by photo.

Outside of Taos is the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. No photos could do justice to this. You’re in the desert, behind you is a huge mountain, in front of you is a huge canyon cut by the “Big River”. The next pic shows the view from the bridge’s narrow sidewalk, but really doesn’t do justice to the whole feeling. Absolutely amazing and dizzying to be there.

“Whoa!” said Joey Lawrence.

Here we are sandwiched between my tripod and a mountain. Read “a mountain” as if you are Ron Burgundy please. This was where we parked to walk out on the bridge.

There should be photos from today’s travels posted tomorrow.

-JG

Jessica and I got married this past Saturday! The weather held through our ceremony and then started raining immediately following. I plan on updating with more details about that, but I wanted to share a couple of pics from today. We are in Santa Fe, New Mexico on our honeymoon. It’s very relaxed and everyone is very friendly out here. More to come…tomorrow we’re off to Taos.

This is where we’re staying…it’s pretty much the coolest little place.

This was across the street from our condo. I <3 New Mexico

-JG