Sandia Mountain – The length of NM 165 

Memorial Weekend 2024 and the month of Jerry Widdison’s 90th Birthday

We drove on the old 66 highway in the trusty old Civic, past Red Ryder’s “Beavertown” location and past the old building that stretches along the bottom of the canyon where Glen Campbell once joined his Uncle Dick Bills playing and singing with the Sandia Mountain Boys. Jerry recalled the radio and TV show. Remember the KOB jingle that Glen sang?* 

Riding down the trail to Albuquerque

Saddlebags all filled with beans and jerky

Heading for K Circle B

The TV Ranch for you and me

K Circle B in Albuquerque

You’d sing it in the car on long drives home in the un-air conditioned Plymouth station wagon. “The TV Ranch for you and me,” changed to “That’s the place for you and me.” 

*A couple of TACA board members who’d never heard it were subjected to a rendition at a recent meeting.

Northward from the Village of Tijeras was our route. The first stop wasn’t far – the Ojito de San Antonio county open space.  The parking area is behind the San Antonio Catholic Mission Church which sits on a  portion of an ancient Pueblo ruin. Treasured water from springs flows through the secluded valley to the settlement below – on the other side of the fast four-lane. The speeding traffic adds a special frisson to our journey.

From the giant roundabout construction project at Sandia Crest Road we headed up into to the Cibola National Forest. It was still early when we pulled into the Doc Long Picnic area and quickly left, reminded it was busy Memorial Weekend. The crowded noisy parking area was nearly full.

The place was named for William Henry ‘Doc’ Long, who was a pathologist with the US Forest Service and had an experimental station and cabin there from 1910 into the thirties. Jerry noted the canyon here is called Tejano, probably for Long, who was from Texas.

Onward and upward, past the Sandia Peak Ski Area – closed. That’s a missed opportunity. We’d pay to ride the chairlift on a nice day like this. Skiing and development for winter sports began as soon as the first road was built in the twenties. The La Madera Winter Sports area opened in 1938 and replaced an even older winter recreation area at Tree Springs. This and other factoids from the wonderful rich and heavy tome published by the East Mountain Historical Society.

Portions of NM 165, the Sandia Loop, date from the twenties and it was likely a trail before that. It follows the creek that runs north called Las Huertas. According to Place Names of New Mexico, the book Jerry has contributed to, the upper portion of the creek was named Ellis for the family that homesteaded there. There was once an old two story cabin on a pond fed by springs at the Ellis place. Toured in the eighties, the cabin was spooky dark and low and full with books. The woods were full of bear and the pond was full of water. The cabin burned down decades ago.

The Civilian Conservation Corps did a lot of work on the roads, trails, and picnic areas on forest lands here. The Las Huertas picnic area is one wonderful result. At a quiet a picnic table surrounded by beautiful huge ponderosas we had our lunch of chicken sandwiches and ginger beer.

The trusty Civic made it through the mountain on rocky rough NM 165 down to Placitas. On a whim   we went north where the paved road bends west into the village. There are new big houses all over these hills now. They’re a stark contrast to what some people had going out here 50 or 60 years ago. Jerry remembers the commune named “Tawapa” and it’s in the Place Names book. There were several others, most short-lived.

The Tawapa residents were displaced after losing a court battle over ownership in the 1980’s. It echoed the fate of a place called Tejon near here. The Tejon Land Grant was purchased and its residents displaced after losing a legal fight in 1890. It’s always been about land. And water.

Las Huertas Creek is named for the vegetable and fruit gardens and the meager flow is precious here.

We came upon a feral horse herd. It felt like a magical equine safari. Chirrups at a bay stallion from the open window failed to even cause an ear to twitch. He didn’t give us the time of day. But it was about 3PM.

We completed the Sandia Loop Road, and headed down the trail to Albuquerque in the trusty dusty Civic, thoroughly enchanted.