Five hundred balloons need a lot of lawn. Balloon Fiesta Park, at 5500 Balloon Fiesta Parkway on Albuquerque's north edge, is the custom-designed 365-acre home of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta - the largest ballooning event on Earth and the most photographed event anywhere, which grew from 13 balloons in a 1972 mall parking lot into a nine-day October spectacle whose dawn Mass Ascensions lift more than 500 balloons over crowds that top 80,000 a session. The heart of the park is t.....

The best backdrop in New Mexico concert-going is the mountain the venue is named for. The Sandia Amphitheater at Sandia Resort and Casino, 30 Rainbow Road on the northern edge of Albuquerque, seats more than 4,000 for open-air shows with the Sandia Mountains rising directly behind the stage and the Rio Grande valley falling away to the west. The venue belongs to the Pueblo of Sandia's resort, which opened in 1994 as New Mexico's first Indian casino and grew through a 2005 hotel addition and 201.....