Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Welcome to a special holiday edition of Travel Tuesday… Call it Travel Sunday… Call it anything you like, it’s here. Rather than wait for another Tuesday to feature this gallery, I am posting it early so that if you happen to live near, or will be visiting Albuquerque over the holidays, you can plan to visit the BioPark. Since 1997, the Albuquerque BioPark Botanical Garden hosts the River of Lights. A fundraiser for the BioPark, the people of Albuquerque continue to support the park’s projects through admission sales to this annual attraction. Each year, new sculptures in light are created by craftsmen who are dedicated to the art of creating in light. It’s less than a day’s drive from our winter home in Buckeye to Albuquerque, and we were invited to enjoy a trip to the park with family and friends on one cool New Mexico evening. We enjoyed the trip through the park very much, and the gallery of images I am sharing with you is only a small sample of the millions of lights that adorn the park, this holiday season through January 2, 2016.

The light sculptures feature creations that depict appropriate life in the area for that section for the garden. The lion in the image above is only one of several typical jungle animals found in that section of the park. Other African animal images are included in the gallery below. If you plan to attend the event, be sure to check out their website here. Throughout this holiday season there are several special events that only occur on specific dates. For example, the G-model trains only run on Wednesday through Sundays. On some nights, the Polar Bear Express train provides a magical treat for those who still believe. On one special night, the express becomes a 21+ activity where the hot chocolate makes room for adult beverages.

 The light sculptures in the desert southwest area of the BioPark remind me of our Buckeye area, though on our hikes, we have only seen one coyote, and that from a long distance. In the gallery featured here, you can click on an image to enlarge it and to scroll through the small sample of images we saw the evening we visited Albuquerque’s River of Lights.

John Steiner