About the Albuquerque, NM Area
I serve the greater Albuquerque area including Bosque Farms, Los Lunas, Peralta, Belen, Vegita, Rio Communities, Corrales, Rio Rancho, Edgewood, Morarity, Estancia, Santa Fe and various other areas of the state of New Mexico. I have many contacts in the horse industry throughout New Mexico, which enables me to get pertinent information about areas I don't service on a regular basis.
Placitas, NM
About Placitas
Ask three Placitans what they like best about living in Placitas and you may get six different answers. One will say it is being so far from everything, another, being so close to everything — and both will be right.
For some it is the peacefulness, for others the proximity to hiking trails. Most will mention the perfect weather, four distinct seasons without harsh extremes. But almost everyone's answer will include something about the views. Many homes look north toward the hills and mesas, all the way to the Jemez range and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains north of Santa Fe.
Others face the mountain, that smooth yet imposing spine of the Sandias which covers with snow in the winter. Some homes get both views. In another pleasant paradox of Placitas life, these comforting views are always the same, and yet they change constantly thanks to the sun's evolving angles and the seasonal rebirth of high desert flowers and shrubs.
With it's convenient proximity to both the Albuquerque-Rio Rancho metro area and Santa Fe, Placitas is recognized as a unique – and a uniquely situated – bedroom community for these areas.
Santa Fe
Santa Fe
Is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of Santa Fe County. Santa Fe (meaning “holy faith” in Spanish) had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census. It is the principal city of a Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Santa Fe County and is part of the larger Albuquerque-Santa Fe-Las Vegas Combined Statistical Area. The city’s full name when founded was La Villa Real de la Santa Fé de San Francisco de Asís (“The Royal Town of the Holy Faith of St. Francis of Assisi”).
Santa Fe is located at 7,199 feet (2134 m) above sea level, making it the highest state capital in the United States.
The city and the surrounding areas have a high concentration of artists. They have come over the decades to capture on canvas and in other media the natural beauty of the landscape, the flora and the fauna. One of the most well-known New Mexico–based artists was Georgia O'Keeffe, who lived for a time in Santa Fe, but primarily in Abiquiu, a small village about 50 miles (80 km) away.
Edgewood
Edgewood, New Mexico
Founded in the early 1930′s, Edgewood was the homestead of a number of families that still maintain deep roots in the community.
The Town of Edgewood stretches out over a 16 mile area in the southwestern portion of Santa Fe County. It is 20 miles East of Albuquerque on Interstate 40. It is 51 miles South of the City of Santa Fe, which is the county seat.
Located on the Eastern side of the Sandia Mountains, Edgewood has a cooler temperature than both Albuquerque and Moriarty. While local activities like riding and hiking trails, historic Route 66, historical shooting society, wildlife park, music festival, and world class golf are available in Edgewood.
Bernalillo
Bernalillo
The Town of Bernalillo has grown from a small, active community on the outskirts of Albuquerque, to a bustling town of approximately 8,320.
It lies in the Albuquerque Basin on the east bank of the Rio Grande. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 4.7 square miles.
Bosque Farms
Bosque Farms
A village in Valencia County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 4,092 at the 2010 census. It is approximately l8 miles south of Albuquerque.
Bosque Farms has gradually become more residential, but still maintains a connection to its rural and farming legacy. There are still large tracks of alfalfa fields.
In the past they provided forage for the diary farms. Today, there is only one active dairy farm in Bosque Farms, and much of the alfalfa and the newer grass fields provide feed for the many horses that are part of the Bosque Farms environment.
Los Lunas
Los Lunas
A village in Valencia County, New Mexico, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the village population is 24,877 . It is approximately 20 miles south of Albuquerque.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 10.1 square miles (26.0 km²), all land. The village lies in the Albuquerque Basin on the west bank of the Rio Grande, and is on State Highway 6, east of Interstate 25.
San Acacia
San Acacia is a small community in Socorro County, New Mexico, United States. It was once a prosperous railway town, but is now largely deserted. There is a nearby diversion dam on the Rio Grande, important in irrigation.
The village lies on the Rio Grande river in the Albuquerque Basin. The village is 22 miles south of Bernardo and 14 miles north of Socorro. It is off Interstate 25 at exit 163.
It is near to the southern boundary of the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge. San Acacia gives its name to the stretch of the Rio Grande that extends south to the Elephant Butte Reservoir. The nearby San Acacia Diversion Dam is used to transfer water from the river into irrigation channels. When the river is low, the Isleta Diversion Dam, further to the north, and the San Acacia dam can divert all water from the Rio Grande along a 177 kilometres (110 mi) stretch of the river.
Foundation and growth
The settlement of San Acacio was named by the Spanish after Saint Acacius, leader of the ten thousand martyrs of Mount Ararat, an early Christian saint who was crowned with thorns from the acacia tree.
The hill to the east of the San Acacio cemetery was the location where, in 1855, John W. Garretson fixed the Initial Point for the Principal Meridian and the Base Line. This is the reference point for all topographic maps of the state of New Mexico.
San Acacio became important in 1878 when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway was built through Socorro County on its route along the Rio Grande to El Paso, Texas. It was incorrectly given the official name of San Acacia after the railway came through.
Belen
Belen
(Spanish: Belén) is a city in Valencia County, New Mexico, United States. Belen is Spanish for Bethlehem, and over time has gained the nickname "Hub City" because of the Belen Cutoff of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. The Cutoff made it possible for many more trains to travel east and west across the United States. Prior to the Belen Cutoff, train traffic came through the steep Raton Pass on the Colorado and New Mexico border. To this day, an average of 110 trains travel through Belen in a 24-hour period on the Southern Transcon.
Belen also has the only Harvey House Museum in the state of New Mexico. The population was 7,269 at the 2010 Census.Belen is approximately 30 miles south of Albuquerque, NM.
Albuquerque
Hot Air Balloon capital of the world.
Albuquerque (i/ælbəkɜrkiː/) is the largest city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County, and it is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande.
The city population was 552,804 as of the 2011 population estimates from the United States Census Bureau and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. It has a 2012 estimated metropolitan population of 901,700 according to the US Census.
Albuquerque is the 57th-largest United States metropolitan area. The Albuquerque MSA population includes the city of Rio Rancho, and forms part of the larger Albuquerque – Santa Fe – Las Vegas combined statistical area, with a total population of 1,146,049 as of the 2010 Census.
Albuquerque is home to the University of New Mexico (UNM), Kirtland Air Force Base, Sandia National Laboratories, Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, and Petroglyph National Monument.
The Sandia Mountains run along the eastern side of Albuquerque, and the Rio Grande flows through the city, north to south.
Corrales
Corrales is a village in Sandoval County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 8,329 at the 2010 Census. It is part of the Albuquerque Metropolitan area, located north of Albuquerque on the west side of the Rio Grande.
The Village of Corrales is a small, treasured oasis located within a large, fast-growing metropolitan area. The Village is bordered on the east by the Rio Grande and, across the river, by the Sandia Indian Reservation. To the south is the City of Albuquerque while to the west and north is the City of Rio Rancho.
The greater metropolitan area numbers well over a half million people, but Corrales, about 7300 in population, aggressively strives to retain a rural lifestyle.
Prehistoric sites indicate the Corrales Valley has been occupied as early as 500 A.D. when the ancestors of the present-day Indian Pueblos derived sustenance from the fertile valley. Subsequent populations, including Hispanic, European and American families, settled here to raise grapes, apples, and livestock.
Today, Corrales is distinguished by its broad green pastures and orchards, its rich historic and artistic character, and of course the sounds and scents of roosters, cows, horses and sheep. To cross the borders into Corrales is to step into another time and place where the stresses of twenty-first century life give way to the grace and pace of another era.
Moriarty
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4.8 square miles (12 km2), all of it land.
Every October, Moriarty plays host to the Pinto Bean Fiesta, which is composed of a bunch of simple games in Crossly Park, as well as a parade and crowning of a "Pinto Bean Queen."