Ruidoso is a mountain resort town tucked into the Sacramento Mountains of southern New Mexico at around 6,900 feet — high enough to offer genuine alpine scenery and cool summers in a state more associated with scorching desert. The town sits on the edge of the Mescalero Apache Reservation, and the surrounding Lincoln National Forest makes it a natural base for hiking, mountain biking, and fly fishing in the Rio Ruidoso.
In winter, Ski Apache draws skiers from as far as El Paso and Albuquerque — it is one of the most southerly ski resorts in the United States, owned and operated by the Mescalero Apache Tribe. The views from the upper slopes over the desert basin below are genuinely startling. In summer the same mountains pull people out of the heat of the lowlands: the temperature can be 30 degrees cooler than in Alamogordo, just 60 miles away.
Ruidoso Downs, the adjacent community to the east, hosts the famous All American Quarter Horse Futurity at the Ruidoso Downs Racetrack each Labor Day weekend — one of the richest quarter-horse races in the world. The Hubbard Museum of the American West nearby is one of the better small museums in New Mexico. The town fills up fast during race weekends and major holidays; book accommodations well in advance.
Sudderth Drive galleries and the Noisy Water Winery make the town centre worth an afternoon browse. The Lincoln National Forest offers hundreds of miles of hiking trails through ponderosa pine. The Mescalero Apache Cultural Centre south of town is worth a visit to understand whose land this has always been.
The best approach by road is via NM Highway 70 west from Alamogordo, or via US 380 from Roswell to the east.