If you want to see the leaves changing color around Albuquerque

Here are some great places to do that.

Albuquerque isn’t regionally famous for its fall colors like Santa Fe is for its aspens, but we have some exquisite fall colors well worth the hike to see them.

I’m only including here places I haven’t seen on other local lists yet this year.

If you have two hours

Anywhere with cottonwoods is going to be lovely in mid-fall, but for one of the best leaf shows in town, head south on Second Street to Valle de Oro, the Southwest’s first urban wildlife refuge, in early November. Towering cottonwoods glint yellow and gold along the Rio Grande, and sandhill cranes burble in the fields. Last year we ran into a visitor from San Antonio exploring the trails who said Valle de Oro was cooler than anything she’d seen in Santa Fe. Score.

If you have half a day

The Sandias have aspens too, guys. Lots of them; we could already see them beginning to turn from far below in Embudito Canyon late last month. Drive up the Sandia Crest Highway and hop out above 8,000 feet for a hike in our own aspen glades. I was planning to head to the Ellis Trail to see the aspens, but then I saw a Forest Service post helpfully noting that the area around Del Agua Overlook on the Sandia Crest has the largest aspen stand in the range. And, as we know, Del Agua Overlook also overlooks another compelling sight: the dome topping The Needle. You can’t lose.

If you have the better part of a day

The drive from I-40 to the Manzano Mountains has some of the best scenery in the area. And when you get there, you’re in the Manzanos, which is about as good as it gets. If it’s mid-October, you’re probably in Fourth of July Canyon, named for the fall fireworks show put on by an impressive stand of sawtooth maples. This is every imaginable shade of red, yellow and orange (I swear I even saw pink) in one of the most beautiful mountain settings in the region. Even if you only make it a quarter-mile, you’ll see eye-popping colors. But if you’re up for a six-to-eight-mile hike, Stephen Ausherman’s “60 Hikes Within 60 Miles of Albuquerque” has the route you want. You’ll navigate four trails and a forest road, a spring, Mosca Peak, canyons and a grotto. If that’s still not enough, come back in the summer, when you’ll have it all to yourself.