The Sandias loom just before turning into the driveway. Sandia means...watermelon.
To see any part of New Mexico, even from the train window, is to realize something of immensity, her tremendous range from desert floor to mountain peak, her vivid color and beauty.....To see the red rocks; the alkali flats like snow; the sand dunes so graceful and curved; the long cedar slopes, speckled green and gray, leading up to the bold peaks; the vast black belts of timber; the Navajo facing the sunrise with his silent prayer; the Hopi in his lonely cliff dwellings with their monuments of a vanished race; the endless slopes of sage, green, and gray, and purple on the heights; the natural stones bridges and petried forests--and a thousand more beautiful sights--that is to see New Mexico and the Southwest. --Zane Grey, "An Appreciation of New Mexico"
