Stepping Over to Ruidoso, New Mexico

While visiting Cloudcroft, we decided to swing over to Ruidoso while there. It is another village about an hour north of Cloudcroft. Originally, I only knew we were considering going to church there on Sunday morning. However, we learned of other things they have to offer that made them a must visit! (And we changed our mind about going to church there. Went to Alamogordo instead.)

Ruidoso's Winter Park is a recreation park with something that we really wanted to try - a mountain coaster! Sadly, it was out of our price range this time at $25 a person. And then we didn't know how the youngest would be on her own since she was just barely at the cutoff age for riding with an adult. But it is called the Screaming Eagle and looked like it would be so much fun! You could also go tubing, or they offered a couple other activities.  

We walked down Sudderth Drive to check out a bookstore and a couple other stores that caught our eyes as we went by. Books Etcetera was neat, but it was just new books. We had been hoping they would be more of a used bookstore. They did have cute souvenirs and gifts though. 

I really enjoyed Mountain Treasure Thrift, which was also on Sudderth Drive. They had quite the collection of things. The lady who checked us out was really sweet and helpful with items that didn't have prices on them. 

I'd say this is another village that is geared towards tourists. But it was fun to visit. Finding the thrift store was my favorite part. Ruidoso is about an hour north of Cloudcroft. Then you have Alamogordo, which was about 30 minutes west of Cloudcroft. That is a much bigger village (?) or town... Not sure what that one is categorized as. But it was big enough to have Walmart and Dollar Tree! And we heard there was some thrift store called Kings Treasure, but it was closed when we were there. Just a couple places to consider if you make the trip. 

I'd say all the roads were incredibly twisty through the mountains. I suggest having all wheel drive if you go in the winter months. Snow was everywhere. You could see the Salt Flats in the distance, which was awesome. We drove through a tunnel as well. While short, it was still cool.