Ruidoso, New Mexico

Last weekend Spencer and I got away from El Paso for the weekend....yipee! We left as soon as I got home from school, loaded the dogs, and began our 2 1/2 hour drive. The drive itself is not so bad except you do have to drive through several small towns. This meant the speed limit continuously changed. As we drove (in the dark) higher and higher to reach the town of Ruidoso, we could tell we were in mountain country due to the abundance of trees! The town itself is elevated at 6,900 feet!

We arrived at our La Quinta (the ONLY hotel that doesn't charge a pet fee in Ruidoso & all the cabins wouldn't allow big 'ole Max) around dinner time. We unloaded everything and everyone and got the dogs' kennels set up. Then we went and had dinner at a cute, little Italian restaurant. It was located in downtown Ruidoso which is sooooo cute! There is a good 2-3 mile stretch of little shops and restaurants located on both sides of the street. When I saw this area I knew we would have to visit the next day!

Saturday morning we left the hotel around 10ish to go hike a scenic trail. The trail was located very close to Ruidoso's Ski Apache. The drive itself was 12 miles from the main road, BUT the 12 miles took us about an hour b/c you were driving up a mountain the ENTIRE time with curvy roads and cutbacks! By the time we reached our trail we were wide-eyed considering how high up we already were, then to see that our trail was even higher...whew! After researching we were close to 10,000-11,000 feet! We knew from the start of the hike with several conditions, [(1) me being pregnant (2) the dogs were with us (3) it was windy] that we wouldn't last very long. We stopped several times for a water break and so I could sit down...it was hard to breathe up there! The views were absolutely beautiful. Several areas had patches of snow. The dogs had a grand time and did amazing on the the 1-2 foot wide trail. It was very secluded out there so we had the mountain all to ourselves! We were able to see bits of Ruidoso's Ski Apache through the trees. We hiked a total of probably 2 miles and enjoyed every minute of it.

We left the trail around noon and headed back into town. (At the end of the mountain view pictures I took a picture of each of the dogs on our way back into town after the hike...you can just see in their faces that they were exhausted!) We dropped off the dogs at the hotel and went to Ruidoso's downtown area. We ate lunch at an eatery and shopped our way through Ruidoso. The shops were adorable and had neat items...many of which that were very expensive! After spending several hours shopping we headed back to the hotel so I could nap a bit. Then we went and had dinner at Landlocked Restaurant...which was recommended to us by the owner of the eatery. It was delish! After dinner we went downstairs to the bar area, got comfy on a couch, and listened to a guitarist play his heart out! We ended this day with a quick trip to TCBY.

Sunday morning we loaded everything and everyone and stopped at a large lake on our way out of town. It was VERY windy this day as you will see in the pictures. We walked/jogged around the lake and let Max go for a swim! Then we headed back to reality...El Paso.




Ruidsoso Fall 2010 - slideshow with music