If you’ve never experienced the magic of the Albuquerque Ballon Fiesta, you are definitely missing out. The larger than life balloons, excited atmosphere, and quirky town made for the perfect Fall Break getaway.

Insider information (random google searching) said that to fully enjoy the experience, you needed to get there super early to see the morning launch (dawn patrol). We set our alarm for 2:30am (oof), left the hotel a little after 3:00am, got to the parking lot shortly after, hung out in our car for a bit and then went to get in line. At 4:30am they opened the gates and we found a spot to set up for the morning. A picnic table seemed like a good enough spot and hot chocolate and breakfast burritos lifted everyone’s spirits.

The drone show at 5:45am was unexpectedly really impressive. I think the little ones enjoyed that more than the actual balloons.

Dawn Patrol at 6:00am was absolutely magical. Watching the balloons all lit up and rising in the dark sky was a beautiful sight.

Opening ceremonies and national anthem at 7:00am. That flag was huge!

This picture of the Mass Ascension at 7:30am doesn’t do it justice. There were so many balloons!

8:00 am special shapes rodeo was fun to walk around and see all the unique balloons.

Takeaways

I’m SO glad we went! It was a very early morning but we went back to our hotel around 9:00am and napped for a while before moving on to our next adventure.

What was worth it – getting there early for parking and a picnic table was definitely worth it. Gave us time to get some food and the little ones slept for a while in the stroller.

What I would do differently – next time I would spend more time collecting trading cards from the different balloon owners. I didn’t realize this was a thing until later!

I would definitely go back again!

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