I never expected New Mexico to be this beautiful but this town is so much like Lake Tahoe without the casinos, well there is one Indian Casino but it is out of town. The town is a winter skiing destination, summer resort and an Artsy Colony. Lots of tiny galleries, outdoor Art, Coffee houses and of course the 5 star Golf Resort.
SkiApache Ski Resort
From town you can see this massive mountain and you have to drive up a steep, windy, road 12 miles to get to the base of the mountain for skiing. The drive was spectacular but I am not sure about it during winter conditions. The ski mountain closed last week for the season so we didn’t get to ski but Duke did get to play in the snow.
Cold, what's that?
I'll find it!
The resort at the base
Looking back on our way down the mountain
The Valley below
From here we wandered around the town of Ruidoso and then we went to the town of Capitan for breakfast. Not much in this town but a school, this restaurant and Smokey Bear’s home!
Calamity Janes Coffee and Eatery
Not a fancy place but the biscuits and gravy were wonderful. Paul was in heaven, a dive and good food! The cook was a guy with many tattoos, a bandanna and very friendly.
Being refueled we headed to the Smokey Bear Museumwhere Smokey is buried today. What a blast from the past. I remember learning about preventing forest fires in grade school complete with coloring contests and information to bring home to mom & dad telling them how to prevent forest fires. Paul and I grew up on different sides of the USA but our memories sometimes are very much alike and this was one of them. The only thing neither of us remembers is that Smokey was a real bear and he was rescued in a forest fire right near Capitan so today he is buried here and there is a really cute little museum that tells all about him.
Smokey, R.I.P
Just down the road from Smokey Bears place is the historic town of Lincoln where Billy the Kid hung out and the Lincoln County War was fought! Had no idea what this was but apparently it was a local war between Murphy’s & Dolans and the Tunstall’s, The last great shootout of the Old West! The things you learn when you have the time to explore these great roads and towns of the USA.
Torreon or Fort
This was pretty cool, it is the structure they built to protect themselves from Indians when under attack. It had two floors and many places where they could shoot from within. It had a fireplace in the bottom so I suppose they could stay there for quite a length of time – not me!
Our last stop for the day was back in Ruidoso at the Billy the Kid Museum. Mostly there were lots of pictures and stories about the Old West. Next door there was a museum for the American West however I was museumed out (is that even a word?). Outside they had this really cool sculpture. You can’t see them all but there were probably 15 horses running along the fence. They looked real!
A real Stampede