The 2nd week of October is the time for the annual Hot Air Balloon Festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I like to call it AlbuQuirky, but maybe that’s just me. I do know that I avoid going to the “big city” to the extent possible. An exception is Balloon Festival time. When I was here for 6 weeks in ‘02 I had visited the festival several times, but the limitations of the little digital camera I had at the time gave very disappointing results. This year, with the big Nikon D200 in hand, I was ready and rarin’ to try it again.

Sadly, ol’ Lar is a lazy ol’ brute and I didn’t get there till just after dawn - not early enuf. Thought I was fine, but then Mark and his family - flying friends from Florida - showed me the pics they’d taken before daylight, during the dawn patrol. What a beautiful sight……………..

When I got to the parking lot just after dawn I was amazed. Dawn, for pete’s sake - and this thing was well under way, not waiting for us lazyboneses. I took some shots across the parking lot and hustled for the launching grounds. Main launching grounds, that is - balloons were rising like huge mushrooms from an area over a mile long on the banks of the Rio Grande River. Again, what a beautiful sight………….

By the time I paid my entrance/parking fee ($10.00) and got into the grounds there were balloons everywhere. Mostly regular “balloon balloons,” but many “shapes,” too. It’s a good thing they’re soft and just barely moving in the calm air, cause they were sure bumping………….

I saw many different shapes, some familiar from ‘02, many not, and Mark & his family saw many more that I missed. Since he works on the space shuttle at its’ base in Florida, he got a special kick out of the balloon version, accompanied by a patriotic flag……………

More balloons………….

And more…………..

Till the air was filled with them. Spectacular, and this is just a tiny taste……………

Think of the imagination, effort and skills involved here. It boggles the mind. Here are some of my favorites. In the past, the big 70-300 VR lens has given “iffy” results, but today it did great. No complaints at all………….

Hard to believe these are hot air balloons, isn’t it ?? I can’t imagine how they keep the ends inflated…………

One of several reasons they fly at dawn is to take advantage of the “AlbuQuirky Box,” which has cool night air flowing south down from the Canyon of the Rio Grande, and carries the balloons south with it, very close to the ground. The prevailing wind is warmer and blowing north, so, warm air being lighter than cold, it floats up over the cold wind at a higher altitude. The balloons float south, then gain altitude and come back north, so they can often land in or close to the same place they launched. Pretty cool, eh ??

Next year, I’m going to take a couple of days off work to go and really enjoy the spectacle. Here are a couple more by Mark, but this is only a tiny fraction of all that was going on. What a great time ! ! !………………

You don’t realize how big these things are till you’re beside them on the ground. Wow ! ! !

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Posted: October 19th, 2007 under 07-10-12 Hot Air Balloons, 08 New Mexico.
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