San Felipe on the Rio Grande-New Mexico

San Felipe Pueblo is said to be one of the most conservative Pueblos in New Mexico.  It lies about thirty miles north of Albuquerque and sits on both sides of the Rio Grande.  The bridge over the river comes right into the pueblo at the base of beautiful mesas comprised of lava rock.

It lies just a few miles west of I-25 on Indian Service Route 85.  Just to the south of this reservation is the community of Algondones, NM.

Click her to see a satellite map of the area.

Cochiti Dam on the Rio Grande-New Mexico

This is a picture of the Cochiti Dam looking south  towards the Sandia Mountains and Albuquerque.  This dam across the Rio Grande was completed in 1975 and serves as a sediment and flood control structure.  It took ten years to build and it is one of the ten biggest earth fill dams in the world.  It lies within in Cochiti Indian Reservation and rises 251 feet above the valley floor to the south.

This is the bridge across the spillway on the south side of the dam on NM State Road 22.  The water reenters the Rio Grande channel here.  The area where I used to go fishing with my grandfather Delfin was pretty much obliterated by construction.  You can see the remnants of the rock outcropping of the old fishing hole on the right.

The satellite view of this bridge gives you an idea of the size of the dam and its surrounding landscapes.