The last few missions for the Brigade in the Sandia Mountains were on the La Luz trail and the subjects were found deceased. Given the unfortunate history of missions on the La Luz one of our members thought it would be beneficial to hike the La Luz trail outside of mission space. Saturday October 23rd three of us headed up the trail on a glorious weather day. Eight hours later, 14.5 miles and 3,500 feet of elevation change one way and we were back at the trailhead.
Per Wikipedia the Sandia Mountains are a fault block range on the eastern edge of the Rio Grande Rift Valley and uplifted in the last 10 million years. The pictures below attest to the ruggedness of the terrain. The pictures also show the pink hue from potassium-feldspar embedded in the Sandia granite. The pink hue also gives rise to one of the popular histories of the Sandia name. Again per Wikipedia – Sandia means watermelon in Spanish and is popularly believed to be a reference to the reddish color of the mountains at sunset. Another hypothesis is the conifers near the top suggest the rind of a watermelon. Yet another suggestion is that when the Spaniards encountered the local Pueblo in 1540 they called it Sandia because the gourds growing there looked like watermelons and the name Sandia was transferred to the mountains.
Regardless of the history of the name the Sandia’s are enjoyed by many folks in various sporting activities. We encountered rock climbers, paragliders and especially hikers. According to the September 20, 2001 edition of the Albuquerque Journal, the original La Luz trail was 4.5 miles straight up to the old gold mine. The article goes on to say that in the mid sixties during the construction of the Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway the forest service worked on plans to handle the anticipated heavier foot traffic. The current route is the result. However, there are references to several reroutes and we know there is an “old La Luz trail” as we’ve been asked to search parts of it at different times.
The La Luz trail is a wonderful hike and I highly recommend it.
Intimidating view from the start. 
Aspens changing colors higher up the mountain 
The trail was rugged in spots. 
Climbing is popular in the area. 
Many interesting rock formations. 
And rugged cliffs. 
We hoped we could catch a ride to the bottom
