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I have been living in Vegas for almost 5 years after growing up in Minnesota and am looking to move again. I one thing I like about Vegas if the availability of motorsports, mostly the cars(Las Vegas Motor Speedway), 4x4 trucks(desert trails) and boating(Lake Mead). I know there is no race track in ABQ but what is the availibilty of trails for my truck and are there any lakes that are with a short drive? And since there is not track is there any "car culture" in ABQ, such as a cruise nights/spots or any car clubs? I have visited ABQ a few times and seem to like everything it has to offer. It has the derest living that I love with the four seasons that I miss from Minnesota. However I will have a hard time living without my toys.
Wags1826 - There are plenty, and I mean plenty of trails for off-roading, and our mountains have incredible trails too. The good thing about the mountains here is they are green as opposed to the desert type in Vegas. Within an hour you can be surrounded by lush landscapes, and creeks of water in either the Jemez or Sandia mountains. As for lakes, this is a little more difficult. Most of the big lakes are 2 to 2 1/2 hour drive from ABQ. There are some small no wake lakes within an hours drive but not sure if that'll do. Up by Farmington in the NW corner (aka the Four Corners) you have Navajo Lake, quite beautiful................in fact the scenery is similar to Mead, but because of it's higher elevation and cooler temps, the water temp is 10-15 degrees cooler than Mead. However, this is where we go in the summer and it is plenty warm enough especially when it's in the high 90's. Elephant Butte is 2 hours south, warmer temps both in and out of the water. Great lake, but being half way in between ABQ and El Paso it gets really crowded. Conchas near Santa Rosa is an excellent watersports lake as well, there are a few more but I'll let others list those.
Just outside of town is Sandia Motorsports Park, here they have amateur races which include mini sprints, and other car types. If you have a street bike you can hit their rode course, or you can try it with your car as well. There are plenty of car clubs, Mustang Club, Corvette Clubs, BMW, Lowriders, and the Fast & Furious types. This again should not be a problem. Vegas is great and Mead is wonderful (just got back Sunday), but I feel our climate is better, and if you don't mind driving to a lake I think you'll be plenty satisfied here in the Land of Enchantment.
(PS. Watersports will not be a year round deal here, we do cool down in the winter months)
I can also comment on Sandia Motor Speedway (opened in 2000). My family and I paid our first visit to SMS this past Saturday and we had a blast. Obviously it doesn't meet the standard set by LVMS or other NASCAR/IRL tracks but the facility was clean, cost was reasonable, and the racing was very entertaining. My boys particularly enjoyed being able to go down to the track during intermission to meet the drivers and see the USLMA cars up close.
Wags1826 - Please find the link for Sandia Motor Speedway. Like Chap said, not a NASCAR/IRL facility but nice anyway. Click on the about us tab to get detailed info on the facility.
Sandia MotorSport Park-Sandia Motor Speedway (http://www.sandiamotorsports.com/index.shtml - broken link)
Sure we have a drag strip, but the talk is this is the last year it will be open. Supposedly, there are a lot of new houses coming up in the area and the builders offered the owners a pretty penny for the land. SOOO this *may* be the last year it's opened. I know PLENTY of people who go there, and having a muscle car myself have been there quite a few times
There's a pretty active sprint car community here as well. Numerous tracks plus visits to PHX and Vegas, etc.
If you like off-roading on ATVs or dirt bikes, there's an area just S. of the city near the old drag strip, and tons of trails on the W. side down into the Rio Puerco drainage.
Nearest lake is Cochiti (about an hour) but it's a no-wake and no booze lake (tribal land), otherwise try Santa Rosa, Conchas, and Elephant Buette.
NMT Off-Road Club (my DH is their sponsor) - you don't have to go to NMT to join us on trips (we're in Socorro BTW). Also the NMT Automotive Racing Club also posts on this forum so feel free to ask them questions on where to race or Auto-X if that is what you are into (we sold our MG Midget last year so we're a little bit out of the loop now days on auto-x) -this group does regular trips and have a lot of members, feel free to post on the forum!:
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sprint cars
