A timelapse of Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta balloons from the launch field.
Author: David
Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta morning sessions
One of the best things about the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is that people can go onto the launch field, right up to the hot air balloons, and watch them being set up, inflated, and launched into the air.
Of course, perhaps about half of the people just hang around the main concourse, either because they can’t be bothered walking out there, or they don’t realize they can (despite lots of others doing so). But it really is a magical experience to walk amongst the balloons.
Here are a bunch of photos of several morning sessions from this year. The morning sessions typically involve a few balloons inflating for the “morning glow”, where they light up when it’s still dark. Then a few will launch for “dawn patrol”, where the pilots can experiment with the air currents, reporting back to others on the ground. Then all the other balloons will start to inflate and launch once the sun is up.
A collector card:
The “zebras” are launch directors, telling balloons when it is safe to launch:
Mini remote-controlled balloons:
The blimp keeps an aerial eye on things:
We enjoyed having New Mexico Piñon Coffee each morning:
Tot Box potato tots, very tasty:
Arts and crafts stalls:
Another day, burritos for breakfast:
Bad coffee and decent burrito:
Pin collecting is quite popular:
Mounted police:
The crowd on the concourse:
Meat pies etc:
Beignets and tots:
National anthem while a balloon raises the flag, before the others take off:
So many balloons!
Video: Albuquerque balloons from campground
A timelapse of Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta balloons and fireworks from the campground.
Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Park
We stayed in the VIP North RV Lot at Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Park in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Rally-style dry camping, i.e. without any power, water, or sewer hookups, in a dusty parking lot. But we weren’t there for the camping experience — we were there to attend the Balloon Fiesta.
Dates:
- Check in: 2023-10-08
- Check out: 2023-10-14
- 6 nights
- We were going to stay 7 nights, but decided to leave a day early… unfortunately (stay tuned!)
Weather:
- Drizzle, partly cloudy
- High temps ranging between 68-81°F, lows around 40-52°F
- Negligible wind most days, gusts up to 35 MPH on one day
Noise:
- No freeway noise
- No train noise
- Some neighbor noise
- Evening fireworks
Site:
- Pull through, gravel
- Needed to disconnect toad; parked behind coach
- Very unlevel front-to-back; used several blocks
- Rally parking on sites about 50 feet long by about 20 feet wide
- Clean site
Utilities:
- None
- We used our generator and solar each day
- They did offer water fill and waste pumping, though we didn’t use them
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 54-57 Mbps down, 9-15 Mbps up, 80 ms ping
- Verizon: 25 Mbps down, 21 Mbps up, 120 ms ping
- AT&T: 10-18 Mbps down, 9-16 Mbps up, 80 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: none
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpster by entrance
- Balloon Fiesta!
Our review on Campground Reviews:
The place to camp for Balloon Fiesta
How can you even evaluate Value/Service/Cleanliness here? The whole point is to be close to the Balloon Fiesta, and it is worth it! $135/night for dry camping in an extremely dusty parking lot would normally garner no stars, but it’s all about location, location, location, so your mileage may vary. This was our second time here. Last year we were in the West lot, and it was fine. This year we were in the North lot, and it was also fine. West has the advantage of being paved and close to the Balloon Museum, but North has the advantage of being closer to most everything on the launch field itself. My advice is to get whatever lot you can if you’re lucky enough to score a reservation.
Top tips:
– Be prepared for the fireworks if you’re in the North lot, as they go off right above you. We saw at least one dog running scared through the lot.
– Be prepared for dust. I don’t think my floors have ever been so dirty.
– As a courtesy to your neighbors (to whom you will be very close), invest in a pipe to divert your generator exhaust away from their windows/outdoor living area (what little of it there is).
– Lastly, you don’t need to come for a week. I would suggest Thur-Sun is long enough to see everything and allow for a day or two of bad weather.
We camped at Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Park in a Motorhome.
The map; we stayed in the VIP North RV Lot (on the left of this map):
An interactive map:
A screenshot of Google Maps, showing our location; it was a short walk to the northeast entrance gate:
Our site; for most of our stay we had nobody on our driver side, which was nice:
People looking at our National Park stickers:
The leveling control before starting it, showing how unlevel the site was:
To divert the generator exhaust away from the neighboring site, we used some flexible dryer vent ducting ziptied onto the exhaust pipe (though I later remembered that I got some pipe clamps to attach it):
Fireworks above our coach:
An aerial view of the VIP North RV lot, from our flight in a balloon (stay tuned for a post about that!):
You can see our coach on the end of a row, in the lower-center of this picture:
Balloons over the RV lot, and other RVs:
A rainbow:
A balloon landing nearby:
We got a bag of Pinon Coffee, and some Krispy Kreme donuts:
Arrivals:
It was certainly fun to have the balloons flying over our coach.
Video: Tucumcari to Albuquerque, New Mexico motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 185 miles from Tucumcari, New Mexico to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.
Travel from Tucumcari to Albuquerque, New Mexico
We drove our coach 185 miles, about 3 hours of driving, from Tucumcari, New Mexico to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to attend the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading southwest:
An interactive map, with our two stops (a rest area and a fuel stop), plus several waypoints for a detour and the exact route to the balloon fiesta RV lot:
Turning left to I-40 West:
Tucumcari Mountain:
I-40:
A rather rough road surface:
Lots of trucks:
A motorhome and trailer:
Fun with camera zoom:
An interesting load:
Another oversize load (smaller than we experienced on the previous travel day on a highway):
Ruined building:
Mountain:
More fun with zoom:
A rest stop with parallel truck parking; not ideal:
Flying C Ranch got a bit carried away with their billboards:
More fun with zoom:
A fuel stop:
I noticed that there was significant stoppage on I-40, so quickly found an alternative route (that was still RV-safe). We took exit 187 onto Route 66:
A view of the miles of stopped traffic on I-40:
The map shows the traffic, not just the red of heavy traffic, but almost black of totally stopped:
Route 66 Travel Center:
Old US Highway 66:
When we were in Albuquerque, of course we had to play Weird Al’s epic song Albuquerque (or music video):
Approaching Balloon Fiesta Park:
We regretted taking the right lane, as the trees brushed against our coach:
Arriving at the VIP North RV lot:
Passing through the raceway:
While Jenn checked in, I untoaded, then followed the coach to our site:
Parking the coach in the site:
Stay tuned for lots of pictures from the balloon fiesta!
Holiday lights in our coach
An out-of-sequence special post. We don’t do a lot of Christmas decorations in our motorhome, since we have to carry them around all year with our limited storage space, but we do have a string of programable color-changing lights that we put around the ceiling, plus a little Christmas tree:
Route 66 in Tucumcari, New Mexico
While staying in Tucumcari, New Mexico, we explored their portion of the famous mother road, Route 66:
We had dinner at Kix on 66, a classic Route 66 diner:
Then cruised along Route 66, to take pictures of the classic architecture and signs:
Tucumcari / Route 66 KOA Journey
We stayed at Tucumcari / Route 66 KOA Journey in Tucumcari, New Mexico. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Buddy sites. We hate buddy sites. But they deliver breakfast, so there’s that.
Dates:
- Check in: 2023-10-06
- Check out: 2023-10-08
- 2 nights
Weather:
- Drizzle, partly cloudy
- High temps ranging between 73-74°F, lows around 43-50°F
- Afternoon wind, gusts up to 26 MPH
Noise:
- Nearby freeway noise
- No train noise
- Negligible neighbor noise
Site:
- #99, pull through, concrete
- Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked behind coach
- Somewhat level, a little front-to-back slope (weird for concrete)
- Concrete driveway about 70 feet long by about 10 feet wide
- Buddy “patios” and grass about 20 feet wide
- Grass between sites about 15 feet wide
- No trees
- Picnic table on small concrete patio, about 25 feet by 10 feet
- No fire pit
- Did I mention buddy site! Do not like. (A buddy site is when our living area faces another living area.)
- Clean site
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 70 PSI water, fairly conveniently located
- Good sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 38-43 Mbps down, 3-8 Mbps up, 96-134 ms ping
- Verizon: 0.05-0.3 Mbps down, 0.5-5 Mbps up, 100 ms ping
- AT&T: 83-95 Mbps down, 7-10 Mbps up, 32-61 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: not used
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpster by entrance
- Package delivery to site
- Cooked breakfast delivery to site
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Buddy sites, nuff said
This is an older KOA with new owners who are working on improvements. I see a lot of potential and will stay here again because it’s just so convenient to I-40, but the rates are a bit much for what it is currently. The staff here are all fantastic. Friendly, helpful, and on the ball when you report an issue. And who could argue with cooked breakfast brought right to your door? However, the biggest drawback is that most of the sites are buddy sites. They have nice, new concrete “patio” sites at the back of the park but ruined it by having them all be buddies. I cannot overstate how much I dislike buddy sites. We camped at Tucumcari KOA Journey in a Motorhome.
Tip for Other Campers: Kix on 66 was very tasty and has that whole Route 66 retro vibe going on.
The map:
An interactive map:
Our site, facing another site:
Better after they left:
The next evening, a fiver arrived in that site, which was even worse, since their door and our door were sharing the same “patio” and table (fuzzy picture from my front door cam in the morning; they left as we were getting up):
Driver sides facing each other is fine:
Empty sites:
Other sites:
Cabins:
The site was concrete, but was still a bit unlevel, surprisingly:
A nice feature of this campground is cooked breakfast delivery to the site, which we sampled:
The office:
With a couple of young cats outside:
Office:
Tucumcari Mountain behind the campsite; as mentioned yesterday, the inspiration for the Radiator Cap mountain in the Cars movie:
This campground was fine for a couple of nights stay, but we wouldn’t want to stay longer. It is under new ownership, so my main feedback would be to eliminate the buddy sites (easier said than done, of course). Or at least space out the RVs to every other site when not busy.
Video: Guymon, Oklahoma to Tucumcari, New Mexico motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 165 miles from Guymon, Oklahoma to Tucumcari, New Mexico, with a picture-in-picture of the view from the truck being towed behind our coach.