Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway

Our friends, Juni and Tom, have been insisting that we had to ride the world's longest aerial tramway at Sandia Peak while we are in Albuquerque. It's been so windy and gusty that it really didn't seem like a very good idea. Today the weather prediction was just for breezes, so we decided to go.

Built in the 60's, the tramway takes you 2.7 miles up to Sandia Peak.

The huge equipment that powers the tram was built in Switzerland --

There are two cars that counter-balance -- one goes up while the other goes down --

This is the view of the tramway cables heading up the mountain out of the desert -

We met the other car halfway, coming down as we were going up -

The ride takes you up the rugged and inaccessible rock escarpment of the west face of the Sandias It was a hazy day today looking down to the Rio Grande River and the City of Albuquerque -

This is the arrival docking platform at the Peak -

Tom had made reservations for a window table for dinner at High Finance, the restaurant located two miles high (10,378 feet) -

Where we were able to watch the spectacular sunset out the window -

As night fell, the haze cleared and we had an incredible view of the city below -

The food was extremely good. Juni and I had steak, Forry had scampi and Tom had grouper. Everything for the restaurant, including water, is hauled up in the tram cars. We went down the tram on one of the last trips of the evening, along with most of the restaurant staff. It was a great trip that I wouldn't mind doing again sometime.