Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

By Joe Berk

The turnaround point for our New Mexico trip was the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.  We had talked about it for years, and it combined nicely with our stops in Tucson and Alamogordo (and the visit to Tinfiny Ranch).  I shot all the photos in this blog with my iPhone.  I had the big Nikon D810 and its boat anchor 24-120 lens with me, but my leg was acting up (an old motorcycle accident injury) and I couldn’t lug that thing around any longer on this trip.  I might have shot better photos with the Nikon, or I might not have shot any at all if I didn’t have my cell phone.  Adapt, improvise, overcome.

The deal on our visit to the Balloon Fiesta was a tour group.  It’s really the only practical way to get in to see the balloons.  Here’s the deal:  Albuquerque’s population is 550,000 people (it’s the biggest city in New Mexico).  The Balloon Fiesta, however, draws a cool one million visitors.  Just getting to the field where the balloons lift off would take an hour or more due to the crush, and if you did that, you’d have to park far away to find a parking spot.  If you’re part of a tour group, however, you ride on the tour group’s buses from your hotel to the balloon field, and they take you right up to the gate.  The City of Albuquerque has done this event for years and they have it dialed.  They designate special bus lanes during Balloon Fiesta week.   Logistically, it’s a much better approach.

What the City can’t control is the weather, and hot air balloons are sensitive to the weather.  If there are electrical storms, low visibility, rain, or high winds, the balloon’s won’t lift off.  And there were plenty of all these conditions that week.  Our tour grip told us we’d be making three trips to the balloon field, but there were no guarantees we’d get to see the balloons lift off during any of our visits.  Two of our visits were early morning affairs (we arrived at the field before sunup), and another one was in the late afternoon.

The Balloon Fiesta field periphery is lined with vendors.

During our first early morning arrival, it was cold and too windy for the balloons to lift off.   The balloon fiesta had a backup plan, though, and in the distant skie we observed a light display.  At first I thought there was a large board with lights, but then the display lifted into the pre-dawn sky.  I learned it was all down with multiple computer-controlled drones.  That was impressive.

Cell phone photography is like halitosis…it’s better than no breath at all. Each of these lights is carried by a single drone. They were probably a mile away when I took this photo.

The images changed.  We couldn’t see or hear the drones, and there was nothing from our location that would indicate they were drones.  It was impressive.

A Puebloe Native American symbol, commandeered as the image on the New Mexico flag. This is the area where we had breakfast. Breakfast was a part of the tour package.

During our second visit, which occurred in the afternoon, the wind conditions weren’t acceptable and there was a thunderstorm moving in, which prevented the balloons from ascending.  But it allowed a parachute display, and I grabbed a few photos of it.

Selection.com is a personnel agency.

Evidently the smoke generators the parachutists used create debris.  One particle hit me in the face.  Fortunately, it caught me in the cheek and not in my eye.  That would have made for an interesting lawsuit.

Another photo of the parachutists.

Even though it was too risky for the balloons to inflate and ascend, there was a lot going on.  It was fun walking around and taking iPhone pictures.

A fire truck at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.

Our third and last visit to the balloon fiesta field was on a brisk Sunday morning and it was the charm.  After being skunked on two prior visits, the word was out:  The balloons had the okay to inflate and liftoff.  The winds were suitably low, visibility was good, and there were no looming electrical storms.  It was a go for a mass ascension, which kind of sounds like a religious experience.  In a way, it almost was.

Balloons inflating after recieving the go ahead. You walk in amongst the balloons. It’s all very exciting.

In a strange kind of way, being in the middle of the mass ascension kind of reminded me of seeing the whales in Baja. You go out in a small boat and for a while, nothing happens. Then you see a lone whale spout in the distance (like that one balloon you see going up in the photo above). Then, suddenly, there are whales spouting all around you, and then they are right up close to the boat. The balloon fiesta is a lot like that. Nothing happens at first, then you get very excited when you see that single first balloon ascend. Then, suddenly, balloons are going up all around you.

Our first balloon going up.
Then, suddenly, there are balloons everywhere.
The cell phone was doing a decent job for me. I would have liked having the D810 with me, but it was not meant to be. Maybe next time.
The colors, and the vibrance, was off the charts. The balloon fiesta is a photographer’s paradise.
Approximately 650 balloons ascended within about 30 minutes. It was impressive.
Several of the balloons were more complex shapes, like this Felix the Cat version. There were turkeys and other shapes as well.
This last photo is a panoramic shot, in which you manually sweep the camera through an arc (in this case, about 180 degrees). The iPhone does a suprisingly good job. The actual image is a little over 16,000 pixels wide.

A question several of my friends asked is:  Did we go up in a balloon?  The answer to that is no.  You have to make a reservation far in advance to get a seat in one of the balloons (we had not), it costs several hundred dollars, and truth be told, I wasn’t too sure about doing it.  Joe Gresh, whom we visited on our trek to Albuquerque, had done it in the past and he told us he and Colleen enjoyed it.  Maybe next time.

If you have any thoughts about visiting the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, my advice is to go for it, and to do it through a tour agency for the reasons listed above.  It’s a bucket list sort of thing to do.   We went with the Road Scholars tour group, they did a great job for us, and they kept us busy for the three days we were in Albuquerque.


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A Sneak Preview…

Wowee, do we ever have some good stuff coming up right here on the ExNotes blog.  Guns, motorcycles, adventure touring in Transylvania, and the results of a content safari through Arizona all the way to Albuquerque.  Here’s an inkling of just a few of the topics coming your way.

What’s the real difference between a $1500 Colt Python and a $650 Ruger Blackhawk?   Watch for our side-by-side, target-by-target comparo.  It’s coming up.

Into resurrections?   Hey, how about CSC’s replica of the original Mustang motorcycle!  You read our recent story about the Al Simmons Mustang motorcycle collection and the origins of the Mustang.   CSC’s Steve Seidner went a step further, and we’ll tell you all about it.

Ever have your well dry?  I mean literally, not figuratively.   Uncle Joe Gresh has, and he’ll tell you all about it.  Gresh is a guy who makes MacGuyver look like an amateur.   You’ll love this story.

We’re going to bring in a new writer or two (or maybe more).  We have a blog loaded and ready to publish from good buddy Airborne Mike on a motorcycle ride through (get this!) Transylvania!  I kid you not.  Transylvania and the Transfagarasan Highway!

On that topic of new writers…Joe Gresh will tell you all about what you need to do to be considered for the ExNotes editorial staff.  Watch for a blog on this topic in the near future.

The Pima Air Museum in Tucson is another treasure.  Wow, that was a fun visit.  There’s so much there we couldn’t take it all in during a single visit, and it’s a place that screams for more than a single blog.  I need to return.  The photo ops were incredible.

More good Joe Gresh stuff straight from Tinfiny Ranch, including the Gresh moto stable and the world famous Gresh project bank.  Motorcycles, the MGB-GT, and more!

How about the Franklin Automobile Museum in Tucson, Arizona?  Never heard of it?  We hadn’t, either, but (trust me on this) it’s Tucson’s best kept secret!

White Sands Missile Range?  Yep, that, too.  Everything from a Nazi V-2 to current US weaponry, and we’ll have the story right here.

How about White Sands National Park?   Think Sahara Desert, and you’ll have a good idea about what these rolling snow white gypsum hills look like.  It was awesome!

The New Mexico Museum of Space History, with a guided tour by none other than Joe Gresh?  That was a really fun visit with lots of cool exhibits.  It’s coming your way.

How about sacred Native American ruins in New Mexico?  We saw several and they were impressive, including the Kuaua Native American site along the Rio Grande River.

Albuquerque is quite a town, and Old Town Albuquerque is quite the place.  We had a lot of fun wandering around and taking photos.  It’s in the mix for a future blog.

And the Albuquerque 50th Anniversary Balloon Fiesta…wow, was that ever spectacular.  The excitement and wonder of that event is one of the most impressive things I’ve ever experienced.

Stay tuned, folks.   It’s quite an adventure, and it’s onging!


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