Ruidoso For The Day

A long weekend with no plans here in Roswell can mean an extraordinarily boring three days!  But a combination of very poor planning and the fact that we have two crazy Key-Dens to look after meant a weekend trip up north to Santa Fe or Taos looking more like a pipe dream than reality.  So instead of a nice long (expensive) weekend trip somewhere other than Roswell... or the exact opposite and spending the entire weekend cooped up in the house going stir crazy... we decided to compromise so to speak, and head up to the mountains of Ruidoso for a much needed day-trip out of the house and away from Roswell! 

    

Even though Alec had visited before, it had been a very long time... and with me never having been and just glad to actually get out of Roswell for the first time in months, we were both really excited to go somewhere new!  Although to be perfectly honest, Alec was a tad disappointed that we weren't making the trip with all of his ski gear!  So far, it has been a pretty crummy year for snow fall on the mountain... so with crappy snow conditions combined with full price lift tickets, we decided to just leave all the gear behind this time.  

The drive wasn't long at all, only about an hour and a half... and even thought I had no idea what to expect of our little adventure, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.  The scenery along the way was beautifully landscaped with rolling hills, tiny towns and the most interesting abandoned houses made of stone, brick or wood.  I was super excited... for the day trip was looking very promising!

After leaving Roswell at 3,573 feet above sea level and about an hour & a half scenic drive... we finally made it up to Ruidoso at 6,720 feet in the Lincoln National Forrest.  As we drove in to town, I felt my eyes light up!  The weather was perfect and the main street in town was full of charm & character... which totally reminded me of being up in Julian, CA! 

 

The weather was way too perfect and there were too many cute & charming stores not to park and get out on our feet and walk the main drag!  We found some really interesting stores and amazingly enough... we managed to find a few items with big invisible blinking signs hovering over them with certain family members' names on them, so we even bought a few early birthday gifts... which made the trip that much more exciting!

After all the walking & the shopping... Alec was eager to go up the mountain and check out the local ski resort, "Ski Apache".  And even though Alec thought he was a professional race car driver in a little Honda Civic... the drive up the mountain was a beauty, even though I was afraid for my life!

I was really excited to see snow again!  There wasn't much of it (only in the shade hiding from the hot sun!), but it was nice to see it on the ground again.  Totally made me miss the last time I was in it... helping the "High-Ridge's" pick out their Christmas Tree a couple of years ago!

The snowfall was pretty scarce... 

but the scenery was still pretty amazing!

The pic below is the ski resort.  With more than half the mountain closed and mostly man made snow covering a hand full of runs... we were both amazed at how crowded it was!  Just another reason for Alec to feel better about not bringing up his ski gear.

On our way back down the mountain we noticed a sign outside a residence that had a name on it that totally made us do a double-take!  We just couldn't resist... so we quickly pulled in, snapped the pic below, and high-tailed it out... completely ignoring the "Sheriff's" vehicle in the driveway!  Needless to say, we were thinking about the Meeker gang & wished they really did live there!

After a long, fun and a much needed enjoyable day,

it was time to go back home to flat and boring Roswell.

But not before hanging my head out the window

to try and snap a few pics of the beautiful sunset!