The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, held the first week in October, and a mere 10 hours from Grand Lake, makes a perfect stop. This year there were 548 balloon teams, including 106 special shape balloons, representing 22 countries.
We love the fiesta, the color and the energy brings out your inner child. Day after day we rose before dawn (and we were lucky to get a RV site within the balloon fiesta compound) so a short walk away was coffee and 100,000 people all in a good mood to watch the mass ascension of several hundred hot air balloons. The special shape mass ascension was amazing. Albuquerque was large enough to provide shopping and vendors for us to really settle into the new RV. We loved the Fiesta so much we extended our original reservation of 3 nights to 5 nights.
Watch this Timelapse Short Film of this amazing event at https://vimeo.com/110211449
