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Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Ruidoso, NM: A Return to Pine Forest Hiking

We've spent the last few nights in Ruidoso, NM, enveloped in pine forests. Ruidoso is a resort town that sits at 6,920 feet in the Sierra Blanca Mountains. There are two ski resorts nearby and lots of hiking trails, so the town has many lodging and camping options, as well as lots of restaurants and touristy shops. We never did walk through town or try any of the eating and drinking establishments, our main objective was to hit the trails, enjoy the forest and start to acclimatize to the higher elevations we'll be in for the next couple of months.

The Ruidoso Chamber of Commerce has done a great job putting together a trail map for the area, you can get an excellent hard copy at their office or use the links here to view the maps online (though the maps would be hard to read if you printed it out yourself...do yourself a favor and stop by the chamber office for the hard copy!).

We hiked a number of the easy fitness trails around town, some are paved, all are convenient and pretty and perfect for a nice evening stroll or quick workout. We also hiked a couple of wonderful loop trails in the nearby mountains.

For our first hike we drove North of town into the White Mountain Wilderness. From the Argentina/Bonito trailhead we did a wonderful seven mile loop going up Argentina Canyon, across the Crest Trail, then down Little Bonito and Big Bonito trails. We did the loop counterclockwise, which seemed to be a tad easier than clockwise, with a gentle ascent of about 1,300 feet. We sure felt it though...we hadn't hiked at 8,000 - 9,000 feet since last fall!

Many of the trails in the area look like this - small streams and forests of mixed conifers and some stands of oak.

Once we reached the Crest Trail the views opened up.
The fence protects Argentina Spring from livestock.

Long distance views to the North.

This wonderful view included the tallest point in the Sierra Blanca range at about 12,000 feet.

Nogal Peak is a hard-to-miss point on the horizon to the East.

There were many stream crossings on this hike, but not enough water to make any of them too difficult.

We played 9 holes of the 27 hole Grindstone Park Disc Golf Course. This was a terrific course with lots of variety of terrain, we just weren't up for a long game that particular day.

Hans contemplates his strategy...the basket is far into the trees across the ravine.

After disc golf we drove up to Grindstone Lake hoping to take a little hike...
it turns out the dam is having a liner installed to minimize leaks.
It's quite an elaborate and interesting project, but also killed our desire to hike there!

Our second long hike started on the edge of town and took us up a spring touched canyon, then along a ridge amongst giant alligator junipers and ponderosa pine, just beautiful! The Perk Canyon (T93) and Perk Ridge (T92-1) trails make up a five mile loop that includes a mile of strenuous uphill to the ridge, and then equally steep downhill from the ridge.

Love this waterfall!

The flowering apple tree in the center of the photo was the only one we saw on the trail...Spring is here!


One of many giant alligator junipers!

There were not a great many flowers along this trail,
but along the ridge were a few large patches of "Locoweed", poisonous to livestock.

Sierra Blanca peak through the trees.

There's going to be a bounty of strawberries in a few weeks in these mountains!

There are many campgrounds and RV parks in and around Ruidoso and we decided to stay at RV Resort of Ruidoso. It's a fairly new park and we just about had the place to ourselves. Only one other neighbor out of 66 RV sites during our entire stay! There is some highway noise but it's pretty quiet at night; the sites are terraced up a hillside creating views and getting you away from the road.

The RV park roads are paved (except the top tier, that's gravel) and the sites are gravel, there is a bit of slope to some of the sites, though management seems to be working on fixing this. Very few of the sites have picnic tables. All facilities are clean and new. We had good 4G Verizon signal.

Hans is showing Rosie the deer in the RV park.

Next up: We return to Santa Fe.


24 comments:

  1. What a treat to sit, read and enjoy your beautiful hikes and scenery! I will definitely make note of this area for the future...shady hikes along streams is my kind of a day! Thanks Lisa!

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    1. :-) This was a perfect time of year, no crowds and beautiful days in the 60's.

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  2. very nice... love the giant Alligator Junipers there...

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    1. I would love to know how old some of those junipers are!

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  3. Great idea to do some smaller hikes to acclimate. Glad to see the fences protecting the water from cattle.. Love the picture with the apple tree in the distance and the close up of the blossoms. Beautiful signs of spring.

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    1. It is amazing the extremes in environment we can experience in this lifestyle!

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  4. Interesting hikes. I'm not use to all the trees:) It does take some time to get use to the elevation. But you are like us, just jump in and go for it, your body will figure it out:) I love how large the alligator juniper are. Enjoy Santa Fe:)

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    1. Yeah, we traversed wide open land when we left Ruidoso today and have a big view at our new site, we do love big views! Being in the trees too long would be hard.

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  5. What beautiful views on that trail!

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  6. Gorgeous hikes! The pine forests remind me of the Black Hills where I grew up.

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    1. If that's the black hills of SD we will be there in June!

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  7. Glad to see the wind has died down :-) The little trough waterfall is great - nice catch!! The locoweed reminds me of how pretty oleander is until you know it's poisonous......it just seems so devious. We are going to need to acclimate very slowly to the higher elevations, I was surprised how much it affected us there :-(

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    1. It's so sad the oleanders are dying in CA. They've beautified so many ugly freeways for decades!

      Yep, elevation is a kicker! Lots of huffing and puffing is involved and then add on dry climate on top of that...make sure you drink LOTS of water!

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  8. Green Chile Burgers are in your future!

    Deas

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  9. I know we are eventually going to get back to hiking at some elevation and I am sure it will take some getting used to! We are starting to get some hills heading back west so maybe we can ease back into the elevation change! Nice views!

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  10. Lisa - let us know if you decide to check out Los Alamos, Bandelier or Jemez Mountains. We can suggest or show you some good hikes. My email is kkeetah@gmail.com

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    1. Thanks Karen! Not sure we'll make it up there this time around...we did visit Bandelier in 2013. I hope our paths cross at some point in our travels!

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    2. One of our favorite restaurants in Santa Fe is the Pantry on Cerrillos Road. Greg loves the fish tacos. I haven't had a bad meal there ever. Wonderful breakfasts too.

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    3. Too funny...we met Rick and JoAnne at the Pantry for lunch our first day in town! It was yummy!

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  11. Looks like a pretty area, and a terrific campground. Bet it feels good to be back hiking in the mountains, even though it does take a bit of getting used to after a few months in the flatlands. Looks like you guys are already acclimated! :-)

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  12. Some nice weather seemed to welcome you Lisa...shorts weather. Is that typical this time of year? Your pics illustrate some beautiful flora and with all those hiking opportunities, a must destination for our these curious travelers to spend a few days. New Mexico & Colorado already on our plate for October.

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  13. We took a day trip to Ruidoso while staying at Valley of Fires and thought it would be a good place to spend some time. Haven't made it back there yet so enjoyed your photos. New Mexico is so diverse.

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