La Bajada Hill

La Bajada, NM
Phone:

East < GO > West

a Bajada means "The Descent" or "The Drop" in Spanish, and this road lived up to it's name dropping about 1,000 fett in a 1.5 miles. In a straight line that would be almost an 8% grade. That's be a very steep hill, thus the 23 hairpin turn switchbacks to reduced the grade. The road is blocked now, so driving it is not possible for the general public. The two vintage postcards below offer some insight into the nature of this section of the Mother Road when it was new. The photo above and the first postcard below are from about the same location.

GPS: 35.551702, -106.236478

Vintage Advertising Highlights

The view in the postcard above is about the same as the photo at the top of this page that we snapped in 2015, but the road is a lot more visible in the postcard.

The small text in the upper right corner of this car card says

"La Bajada Hill, Between Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico".

The back of the card reads:

" LA BAJADA HILL, NEW MEXICO"

"La Bajada is Spanish for "The Descent" or "The Drop" and descent or drop it certainly is, for it is a drop of about 800 feet from the rim of the mesa to the foot of the hill, which makes a drop of about 1,000 feet to the lowland. The road, one and a half miles long is one of the marvels of road building in America, for it is cut out of volcanic lava in the face of an almost sheer precipice.

It has 23 hairpin turns, some of them having a very steep grade. In spite of all this the road is perfectly safe, as all of the turns are widened to accomadate the largest automobiles and those that might prove dangerous have stone retaining walls on the outside to prevent cars going off the road and down the cliff. The trip up or down La Bajada is always remebered going to or from the Pacific Coast over the Ocean to Ocean Highway."

This second vintage postcard gives a view from the top of the hill and maybe a little better idea of how steep the hill is.

The small text in the lower left corner of this card says

"La Bajada Hill, Near Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Note: Both postcards have the same descriptive text on the back and appear to be about the same age. It's interesting to note that neither car mentions trucks going up or down the hill. It's kind of quaint the way they say the road is perfectly safe and they have stone walls to keep you from tumbling down the "cliff".

Photo(s): 2015