Western Trails Estates in Albuquerque, NM

Western Trails Estates is a production-built subdivision on Albuquerque's west side, set at Coors Boulevard and Western Trail NW in the 87120 ZIP code. Fuller Homes developed and built it in the mid-2000s. Streets carry Arizona place names: Havasue, Payson, Benson, Bridgeport, Carefree, Hayden, Stafford, McNary. The houses share one vocabulary of frame construction, stucco walls and pitched concrete-tile roofs. The basalt escarpment of Petroglyph National Monument rises to the west, and the monument's visitor center stands on Western Trail Road off Unser Boulevard, three miles north of I-40. Ladera Golf Course sits a short drive south.

Because one builder platted and finished the whole subdivision, the plans repeat down the block: modest single-story layouts at one end of the lineup and considerably larger ones at the other, all wearing the same stucco and tile-roof detailing.

Getting around leans on the two big west-side arterials. Coors Boulevard reaches the Montaño Road river crossing to the north, and Unser Boulevard runs north through Rio Rancho toward US 550. Albuquerque Public Schools lists Chaparral Elementary, Lyndon B. Johnson Middle and Volcano Vista High as the assigned schools.