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Just to be clear for those not familiar with the woods here;
Trees are not dying off - leaving vast swaths of mountainside bare
of trees - as in a forest fire. There is a Spruce dyoff due to insect
infestation. This is a normal part of forests everwhere. Where this
is happening, other species will fill in the gaps. The areas where there
are currently a lot of dead Spruce will someday have more Ponderosa
and Aspen ( depending on the elevation ).
I hate to hear this. The Spruce Bark Beetle (as Alaska is slowly warming) has really devastated the Spruce in the more temperate parts of Alaska. I never thought about it killing the trees in the Sandias.
I am just trying to push the Duke City folks to fire up on the hiking splendor of their town vs. Santa Fe,etc. For fun only!
Both places are great, it could be a matter of personal preference. Nobody in either place is deprived of "hiking splendor," and it is easy to get to hiking around Santa Fe from ABQ and vice versa. From where I live in ABQ, it is about 45 minutes to drive to Sandia Crest, and an hour to an hour and a half to the different hiking areas around Santa Fe.
Santa Fe starts at around 7000' (Piñon-Juniper woodland), so misses the Upper Sonoran life zone found in the Sandia foothills' lower elevations. Some people prefer the forests of the upper elevations. The Sandia foothills provide a very large unforested area (i.e., views in every direction) for hiking, biking, and exploring that I don't think can be matched anywhere in the Santa Fe area.
The snow season is much longer in the mountains above Santa Fe than in the Sandias. Even in July I've found trails blocked by snow drifts near Santa Fe Baldy. The upper Sandia trails are generally clear of snow by Memorial Day at the very latest. So it depends if you want a longer snow season for skiing/snowshoeing (SF), or a longer hiking season (ABQ).
Living in SF would place you closer to popular trails even further north and west, like near Taos and Abiquiu, etc. ABQ is closer to the hiking in the Manzanos, Magdalenas, Bosque del Apache, etc. Both cities have good access to the Jemez Mts.
Don't worry, wherever you end up there will be more than enough hiking. I see Oregon license plates around ABQ every day, it seems like they outnumber the Texas plates sometimes. Something must be drawing them here...
Both places are great, it could be a matter of personal preference. Nobody in either place is deprived of "hiking splendor," and it is easy to get to hiking around Santa Fe from ABQ and vice versa. From where I live in ABQ, it is about 45 minutes to drive to Sandia Crest, and an hour to an hour and a half to the different hiking areas around Santa Fe.
Santa Fe starts at around 7000' (Piñon-Juniper woodland), so misses the Upper Sonoran life zone found in the Sandia foothills' lower elevations. Some people prefer the forests of the upper elevations. The Sandia foothills provide a very large unforested area (i.e., views in every direction) for hiking, biking, and exploring that I don't think can be matched anywhere in the Santa Fe area.
The snow season is much longer in the mountains above Santa Fe than in the Sandias. Even in July I've found trails blocked by snow drifts near Santa Fe Baldy. The upper Sandia trails are generally clear of snow by Memorial Day at the very latest. So it depends if you want a longer snow season for skiing/snowshoeing (SF), or a longer hiking season (ABQ).
Living in SF would place you closer to popular trails even further north and west, like near Taos and Abiquiu, etc. ABQ is closer to the hiking in the Manzanos, Magdalenas, Bosque del Apache, etc. Both cities have good access to the Jemez Mts.
Don't worry, wherever you end up there will be more than enough hiking. I see Oregon license plates around ABQ every day, it seems like they outnumber the Texas plates sometimes. Something must be drawing them here...
Perhaps it is that large, strangely bright orb that has rumored to frequently be seen in your skies....
Seriously, great post! I was thinking something like that. When I have visited part further north from here, I often see lots of peaks and forests, but the more open foothill environments are certainly appealing, particularly in the cooler half of the year. I was guessing ABQ might have more of the winter options of deserts, canyons, mesas,etc., whereas Santa Fe would have more rocky mountain type landscapes.
I am just trying to push the Duke City folks to fire up on the hiking splendor of their town vs. Santa Fe,etc. For fun only!
I have applied for a job in ABQ, and I lost my shirt on my first tiny home in bubbled, gentrified Ashland, OR. Not looking to repeat that experience.
This is a 3 minute walk from my house. I can walk to the left and be at the Rio Grande, or I could take a bike, and there is also road I could drive.
So seeing the Sandias from here is good enough for us, or we can walk towards them. But there is still a lot for us to see in New Mexico, as well as CO, AZ and TX... This is a Sandia Mountains thread, not a thread to bash other areas...
Well, no intent to bash anyplace. Especially as a potential newcomer.
I was just playing around. I think I would be with those (N8!, Aries63) who like the desert as well as the mountains. That would be a plus on the ABQ area, and especially for the Sandias, in the hiking, scenery side.
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I see Oregon license plates around ABQ every day, it seems like they outnumber the Texas plates sometimes. Something must be drawing them here...
