10/6/2018 – Albuquerque
Wow, what a day! Nancy woke me up a 3:45 am so we could get on the road to the Balloon Fiesta by 4:15am. We hadn’t yet decide whether to go to the Cottonwood Mall to take a shuttle or drive ourselves straight to the Albuquerque Fiesta Field parking area. Since we thought we were ahead of the crowd, we just drove straight to the Balloon Fiesta Field parking area. We were not ahead of the crowd! We were only about 15 miles away but by the time we got to within 3-4 miles of the field, Interstate 25 and the exits and other roads around the field were like parking lots…..at 4:30am! There were thousands of cars working their way towards the onsite Fiesta parking. We actually wondered if we would get parked before the first official event started at 6:00 (Morning Glow).
I have to say the Albuquerque police did an amazing job coordinating the traffic flow. Once we merged into the main traffic flow (many roads were closed off), we got to our parking spot at about 5:30am. We hiked to the gates to get tickets and were on the field near a group of the balloons by 6am. As it turned out, they were the balloons participating in the Morning Glow event that takes place while it is still dark. The balloons that are inflated and ready for takeoff fire up there burners and the balloons glow in the dark…it was a pretty awesome sight.
After the Morning Glow event, balloons just kept inflating and going airborne. By 7:45, the sky was filled with balloons.
This was an incredible sight to see! It was a bit of a hassle getting up at 3:45 and dealing with the traffic but it was so worth it. There were nearly 600 hot air balloons participating in this event, and I’d estimate 100,000+ people there to watch them liftoff. As the pictures show, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. And by 7:45, the sky was filled with balloons of all shapes and colors…..this went on until around 9 am. The event is open all day but all of the balloon launches occur in the early morning. At dusk they do another Evening Glow event. Their are more balloons than in the morning glow, but no balloons actually liftoff.
We were home by 9:30 am, and watched the Bucks win again this afternoon. It was unforgettable day!
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That looks so cool, might just be putting this event on my bucket list!
The balloons were wonderful. I have been to a couple, but I have never seen anything like this!! Awesome, Awesome. Worth early morning arrival!!
Hi Nancy and Rick, Those pictures are GREAT, however if I show these to Dave tomorrow he would probably say that it’s just a bunch of HOT AIR as usual I wouldn’t say that and Rick don’t forget what this Thrusday is. Keep those pictures coming, Thanks Tim