Some Cool Things About Corrales
The above image of Corrales I “Greened up” for Winter.
The incredible Sandia Mountain views are a bonus…Sitting between two rapidly expanding cities–the MetroABQ to the south & Rio Rancho to the west–the small town of Corrales works diligently to retain its rural character. Wonderfully, it has a lot of character to offer. The lush Rio Grande on Corrales’ eastern border, with its flurry of native plants & animals, provides an abundant greenspace counterpoint to the urbanization surrounding the town: according to American Forests, there are over 500 species of birds and animals that take refuge along the Bosque, including bats, coyotes, deer, desert cottontails, rock squirrels, muskrats, porcupines and the American Beaver; the plant life is incredibly diverse, too. The Rio Grande Bosque, running along one side of the village, is one of the cool things about Corrales. Here is another.
Corrales is located in the Rio Grande Floodplain, and continues westward up the valley, bordering Rio Rancho at the top of the escarpment. The image on the first page was taken near Meadowlark Lane, one of the only thoroughfares from Corrales into Rio Rancho. Meadowlark Lane in Corrales is an interesting study in contrasts. From V.B.Price’s 1992 book Albuquerque: A City at the End of the World:
“Rio Rancho is a Rockwellian middle-class suburb with clubhouse and golf course, that has turned into a principality of affordable housing. Driving down Meadowlark Lane from Rio Rancho to Corrales is like crossing a national frontier.”
On Meadowlark Lane you travel down the escarpment into the Rio Grande floodplain, going from exurban communities, then suddenly “cruising past adobe houses, Russian Olive hedges and small corrals, right in the heart of romanticized New Mexico. (page 121)”
Times have changed…V.B.Price wrote about Rio Rancho being an affordable housing community way back in 1992. A lot has changed for Albuquerque’s NW neighbor since then:
In the last year, 13 properties sold in Rio Rancho over a half million dollars; one of them sold for $1,100,000. Currently there are 17 homes selling for over $500,000 in Rio Rancho…