Sunrise Hot Air Balloons above High Desert River and Mountains, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Hot air, high desert

This is already the highest-elevation large city in the United States, but each fall as the aspens turn gold and the mornings turn cold, adventurous souls seek to soar higher still. For all nine days of the International Balloon Fiesta, hot air balloons of countless different colors (and even some unusual shapes) crowd the October sky over Albuquerque. Pilots from all over the globe converge on Balloon Fiesta Park to ride 'the box': a long, looping aerial route powered by low southerly and high northerly winds, which create a huge, vertical lazy river over the Rio Grande basin.