Manzano Mountains

I had a wonderful flight over the Manzano Mountains yesterday.  A friend and I flew to Anastasia, NM for breakfast in his Cessna 170. This area is slightly south east of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The name “Manzano” is Spanish for “apple tree”; the mountains were named for apple orchards planted at the nearby town of Manzano. Manzano Peak is the highest point of the range at 10,098 ft. These pictures are of the flat-topped Bosque Peak which is at 9,610 feet. The Manzano Mountains are the southern part of a larger geologic unit known as the Sandia-Manzano Mountains, which are a fault-block range forming part of the eastern edge of the Rio Grande Rift. They are separated from the Sandia Mountains to the north by Tijeras Canyon, through which Interstate 40 follows the path of historic U.S. Route 66. US Highway 60 runs around the southern edge of the range.  It is a very beautiful area and, as you can see, the trees are just beginning to change to their fall colors.