October 8 Santa Fe – Albuquerque via Historic Turquoise Trail

October 8 Santa Fe – Albuquerque via Historic Turquoise Trail

Left Santa Fe for Albuquerque via the old Route 66 which is now called the Turquoise Trail National Scenic Byway. Our first stop was the old mining town of Cerrillos. The native Indian people mined turquoise here before the white men arrived. The hills have also yielded gold, silver, lead and coal.  Minerals found here found there way to the crown jewels of Spain. In the 1800’s the miners supported the town’s 21 saloons and four hotels. There was an opera house and Sarah Bernhardt performed there.

From there we went to Madrid another interesting town dating from the mid 1800’s when it was a coal mining town. It used to provide coal for the Santa Fe Railroad. In the early 70’s artists and craftspeople arrived and now the town is a thriving tourist place. We had the best time. We went to the Mineshaft Saloon for a drink. What a hoot. The waitress was from Texas and did all sorts of accents, then sitting next to us were two ladies who turned our to be teachers – one of them had been on exchange to Australia in 1985. After a margarita or two, Marg G had to drive the rest of the way to Albuquerque. 

We drove up the Sandia Crest (10 678ft) in height. From there you could see all the way to Albuquerque.  We were all sad as we dropped Marg M at the airport on our way in to the Motel in Albuquerque.