MAY 30 – JUNE 2, 2013 ROCKIN & ROLLIN IN RUIDOSO

Welllllll, ok, not so much rockin, maybe a little rollin. 

We left Artesia and headed for Ruidoso and watched pretty much the same scenery as was around Artesia.  Flat desert scrubland.  As we approached Ruidoso the Sacramento Mountains started to come into view.  The mountains did not seem that high as we had climbed to 7000 feet however we did notice the change in vegetation.  The mountains were covered with trees, some of them not very big but trees just the same.

We arrived at the Circle B RV Park and settled in for a few days.  We had a nice from our campsite or should I say it would have been a nice view without the devastation from the wild fires that roared through here the last couple of years.

We started to explore Ruidoso and the highlight so far was the drive up Sierra Blanca Peak to the Ski Apache Ski Club.  It was quite a drive as we rose from 7000 feet to 11,500 feet which gave us a spectacular view of Ruidoso and the surrounding area.

When we got to the top imagine our surprise at who was there to greet us.  I am not sure what he was doing there but we said hello anyways.

 

The gondola was running to take us the final 700 feet so we climbed aboard and headed up.  We could see Elk grazing on the hill and one little fellow right below the Gondola.  We reached the top hoping to get a nice view to the west.  The white sands of Alamogordo and the Lava Bends should have been in view.  I guess the key words were should have, as we were very disappointed.  There was a haze which made viewing okay; we could see the White Sands and Lava Beds, just not very clearly.  I took pictures anyways.

 

The fortunate part is that we plan to take a closer look at both The White Sands and the Lava Beds a little later in the week.                                 

What we could see not only while we were on the mountain but just about anywhere we drove was the amount of devastation left by the forest fires over the last two years.  It was sad to see.

 

Our next adventure will be to drive the Billy the Kid Scenic Tour which will take us through Lincoln, home of the Lincoln County Wars.