Riding The Sandia Peak Tramway In Albuquerque, NM

Update 11/13/21: We recently returned to Albuquerque for the International Balloon Fiesta (read more about it here). Shae’s mom and stepdad joined us for the first few days, then her dad and stepmom joined us for the last few days. We took both sets of parents up the Sandia Peak Tramway and so I wanted to republish this with some additional information added.

The extra info is about somewhere you can leave your pups while you ride the tramway, along with a (sort of) secret overlook that provides even more amazing views than you get from the tramway’s deck. I’ve added those sections towards the end of this post, so skip to those sections if you’d previously read about our experience riding the Sandia Peak Tramway 🙂

Here’s the original post.

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On our final day in Albuquerque Shae and I managed to get tickets to ride the Sandia Peak Tramway, a gondola which rides up to Sandia Peak in the Sandia Mountains.

We’d tried to get tickets earlier during our time there, but they don’t run the tram when it gets too windy and there had been some gusty conditions. They were also running at limited capacity due to COVID.

As we arrived and parked our car, there was a gondola arriving back down.

The tram tickets weren’t timed beyond arriving between 9am and 3pm. We got there at about 11:30am and there was already a fairly long line, so we didn’t get to board until about 12:30pm. That was a little earlier than it could’ve been; we managed to get on an earlier ride seeing as we were a party of two and all the other groups ahead of us had three or more people in them.

It wasn’t really possible to socially distance in the gondola, but they took everyone’s temperature before boarding, all riders had to wear a mask and the gondola had windows open at the front and back to encourage airflow through it.

The Sandia Peak Tramway is 2.7 miles long and takes about 15 minutes to reach the top. Riders first ascended on May 7, 1966 and more than 12 million people have since taken a ride up the mountain in one of its gondolas.

Between the ground terminal and the terminal on Sandia Peak there are two towers. Tower One was deliberately built at an 18 degree angle in order to be able to support the weight of the cables between the ground terminal and Tower Two. It’s not something you’ll notice when riding on the tramway, but due to the angle of the lean, the top of Tower One leans over 70 feet out compared to the center of its base. Don’t worry about it falling though – it has a number of 40 foot rod anchors made of stressed steel holding it in place, as does Tower Two.

Due to how hard it was to access the location of where Tower Two was to be built, everything needed for its construction was dropped off by helicopter. In fact, more than 5,000 helicopter flights were conducted during the construction of the tramway.

Shae isn’t a big fan of heights and so she didn’t try too hard to take in all the views. At one point the tramway employee in the gondola who was providing information shared that “If the cable carrying us breaks, our remaining flight time will be about seven seconds”. I enjoyed learning that kind of information. Shae…not so much.

The ride probably felt like an eternity for Shae, but the 15 minute journey to Sandia Peak passed by pretty quickly.

Once we arrived at the Sandia Peak terminal, we took a little wander around on the platform at the top. The back of the mountain is where the ski lift is as the slopes there are much more conducive to skiing than the Albuquerque side of the Sandia Mountains which are far more rugged.

You don’t have to take a round-trip ride on the Sandia Peak Tramway. The La Luz Trail starts near the ground terminal of the tramway and takes you on a hard 6.5 mile hike to Sandia Peak. You can therefore hike to the top and ride down, or ride to the top and hike down.

I hiked the Pino Trail and Domingo Baca Trail during our recent visit, so the La Luz Trail is on my to-do list for when we return to Albuquerque in October for the International Balloon Fiesta. (Update: I’ve now hiked the La Luz Trail.) If you plan to hike up to Sandia Peak and take a tram ride down, you’ll want to ensure it’s a nice day because it’d be a shame if you got to the top only to find out the tramway was closed due to high winds as it’d mean having to hike back down!

If you do hike up the La Luz Trail, you can reward yourself with a meal at Ten 3 Restaurant which is also at the Sandia Peak terminal. The restaurant got its name from Sandia Peak’s height above sea level – 10,378 feet.

Despite not hiking up to Sandia Peak, Shae and I decided to reward ourselves with a meal and drink there anyway. The restaurant has a lot of indoor seating, although some of it was closed off. Most of the other tables had families eating at them, so we decided to eat outside due to COVID.

Here are the food, drink and specialty cocktail menus for Ten 3 restaurant when we visited:

I ordered the La Cumbre Malpais Stout, while Shae was a little more fancy and ordered a sparkling wine.

We both ordered almost the same lunch. We both got the brisket sammie which contained chimayo red chile BBQ, smoked gouda, apple slaw and house brined pickles on a hoagie roll. I got mine without cheese and with sweet potato fries, while Shae had hers with regular fries.

Both my sandwich and sweet potato fries were very tasty, so I’ll probably order this again when I hike the La Luz Trail later this year.

While originally waiting in line for the tram, we got chatting to a lovely family who were visiting from Houston. We saw them again later on while having our meal and they gave us an incredibly useful tip about getting tickets for Carlsbad Caverns which we were hoping to visit a few days later. When I’d looked it hadn’t been possible to book tickets for the Caverns online and it was working on a first come, first served basis each day.

They said that when they visited, the ticketing process in person was an absolute mess, so they’d started selling tickets online. I couldn’t find the tickets on the main National Park Service website, but they said to check the social media accounts for Carlsbad Caverns and sure enough, the Twitter account for Carlsbad Caverns had shared a link to buy tickets on recreation.gov. So while we were sitting at the top of Sandia Peak, I was able to book our tickets on my phone for a few days later which was a relief as we were concerned about missing out.

After chatting to Elizabeth, Chris and their kids for a little while longer, Shae and I headed back down on the tramway.

On the way back down I asked the tramway attendant in our gondola about the TWA Flight 260 crash. When hiking the Domingo Baca Trail I’d seen the tramway running overhead and I’d read online that on sunny days it was possible to see the plane wreckage from the gondola.

He tried pointing out where the plane wreckage was, but I couldn’t see it. Apparently it’s somewhere in this photo (assuming I was looking in the right spot!):

There was maintenance crew up on Tower One as we descended; although I don’t mind heights, I don’t think I’d want that job.

Shortly after that we were back at the ground terminal, having descended from 10,378 feet to 6,559 feet above sea level in a matter of 15 minutes.

Are Dogs Allowed On The Sandia Peak Tramway?

No, dogs aren’t allowed on the Sandia Peak Tramway. We’ve therefore always left our dog Truffles at our hotel when riding the Tramway, but during our most recent visit we noticed that they had some kennels in the shade where you can leave your dog will you ride up and down.

At least one of the kennels had a padlock (I didn’t check to see if the other two did), so that gives some peace of mind that no one can take your pup while you’re gone.

A Secret Overlook

During that most recent visit, we got chatting to some people in line, one of whom lives in Albuquerque. She told us about an overlook at Sandia Peak that you likely wouldn’t come across unless someone told you.

Once you’ve taken the tramway up, there are some stairs at the back of the deck taking you to the ski lift side of the mountain. Take those stairs all the way down, then head to the right. There’s a metal fence, but there’s an open section you’re allowed to walk through. From what I can remember, there was a sign warning about the potential danger of getting too close to the edge, but you were allowed over there.

I’m glad we were told about this because it provided even better views than those you get from the tramway’s deck.

It’s a particularly great place to watch the sunset as the overlook faces west.

Final Thoughts

If you visit Albuquerque, taking a ride on the Sandia Peak Tramway is well worth making time for. You get beautiful views of the mountains and city on both the ride up and down, or you can make things more challenging for yourself by hiking in one direction and taking the tram the other way.

We also enjoyed getting food and drink from Ten 3 restaurant; not only was it tasty, it was fun getting to eat outside at that altitude overlooking the city.

Sandia Peak Tramway Ticket Prices

When we visited in March 2021 the ticket prices were as follows:

Round-Trip

• Adults (21+) – $25
• Seniors (62+) – $20
• Young adults (13-20) – $20
• Military with valid ID – $20
• Children (0-12) – $15

One-Way

• Adults (21+) – $15
• Seniors (62+) – $15
• Young adults (13-20) – $15
• Military with valid ID – $15
• Children (0-12) – $15

Due to COVID restrictions, there were only a limited number of tickets being sold when we visited. Tickets only went on sale online one day ahead of time, but I don’t know if that’s a COVID-related procedure or if that’s how the tramway always sells tickets.

We wanted tickets for Friday March 19, so I checked just after midnight on Thursday March 18 and again at 2am. One-way tickets were available, but there weren’t any round-trip tickets available. I wasn’t sure if they’d sold out within minutes or if capacity simply hadn’t been loaded yet, so Shae checked again first thing in the morning and was able to book our tickets then. It therefore seems like round-trip tickets get loaded between 2am and 8am the day before, so hopefully that helps you snag tickets.