New Mexico Road Trip - Ruidoso to Socorro

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Today we’re moving on to our next destination, Socorro, New Mexico.  We were up, packed and ready to go by nine and after getting our car from the valet and getting some tea and juice, we hit the road.  We really enjoyed our stay at the Inn of the Mountain Gods and would stay here again.  The hotel is very nice, there is a friendly and helpful staff, a number of options for eating, and a beautiful location.

Our travel route for the day.  We aren't checking off any scenic byways from our list, but we are visiting the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge (the red line) that we think should have been on the list.

Instead of heading directly to Socorro, we are taking a longer route that will take us back through the town of Tularosa so Val can continue her search for chile ristras.  A chile ristra is a string of chile peppers that is used for drying chile peppers and decoration.  On our first pass through town, we didn’t see any roadside stands selling them, but as we turned around and headed back, we saw a place we had missed.  Val found exactly what she wanted and bought a chile ristra and two wreaths made out of chile peppers, from Felix Lopez, the very nice owner of the shop.  Mission accomplished and we were on our way to Socorro.

Entering Tularosa

Felix holding Val's ristra.

The first part of the drive was through very plain looking high desert terrain and the wind continued to blow so there was a lot of dust.  Driving north we reached the crossroads of US-54 (the road we’re on) and US 380 in the town of Carrizozo.  On our way to Ruidosos we had taken US 54 South and turned east on US 380, and now we will be turning west on US-380, so we have gone in all directions at this crossroads in the middle of nowhere.

Not a very interesting drive north to Carrizozo.

US-380 west was very desolate, but much more scenic than our drive north as the drive was through rolling hills and grasslands.  As we neared Socorro it was only 12:30 and we knew our room wouldn’t be ready, so we decided to visit the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.

We made it to San Antonito.

The main intersection in town - straight ahead to I-25, turn right to go to Socorro, and turn left to go to the Wildlife Refuge.  That's the Owl Bar & Cafe to the right ahead, more on that in a minute.

The Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge is twenty miles south of Socorro, the winter home of thousands of sandhill cranes, snow geese, ducks and other waterfowl. The 57,000+ acre refuge opened in 1939 to “provide a refuge and breeding ground for migratory birds and other wildlife” as well as wintering grounds for the then-endangered greater sandhill cranes. Today it is one of the most highly managed refuges in the national system.

We planned on visiting the refuge later in the day, but since we got here so early, we decided to go to the visitor center and get some information.  This is the winter home of many birds, particularly the sandhill cranes, but it is still a little early and we were told there wouldn’t be many birds until late November or December.  Getting a map, we headed back towards Socorro and stopped in the small town of San Antonio just south of Socorro where we had lunch at the Owl Bar & Café for lunch.

The Owl Bar & Café is a very unassuming restaurant at a very rural intersection but is nationally known for its green chili cheeseburgers and actually won an award this year for the best in New Mexico.  The interior of the café is quite eclectic and reflective of its rural location.  Val had a green chili cheeseburger and said it was very good, but I declined and got a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, because I have found in New Mexico when they say something is mild it is generally too hot for me.

Val's lunch, now I wish I had gotten one.

After lunch, we took the short drive up I-25 to Socorro and by this time our room was ready, and we checked into the Best Western Socorro for the next two nights.  We wanted to wait until late afternoon to return to the Bosque del Apache National Refuge so we relaxed a bit until around 3:30.  It was a half hour drive south back to the refuge where we intended to take both the north and south loops drives.

The back road to Socorro.

Entering Socorro

We head back south to the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.

 

The Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.

We started on the north drive and immediately saw a pond with quite a few cranes in it, but it was so far away we could barely see them and even with our telephoto lenses we couldn’t see much detail.  It was still very windy and since the roads were all unpaved, it was very dusty.  It made getting out of the car to take pictures or walk to the viewpoints a bit uncomfortable, but we did it anyway.

There aren't many sandhill cranes here yet and the ones we saw like these were staying put.

We saw only two groups of cranes, and both were far away.  We didn’t see any of them flying, which may have been because of the winds or maybe they were just happy to stay where they were.  Despite the lack of birds, it was still a beautiful drive with great scenery and a blue sky with very distinctive clouds.

We completed the north loop and continued on to the south loop where we didn’t see any birds.  We did see a strange animal at one point that we couldn’t identify, but it looked like some kind of wild boar.  Val did a little research when we got back to the hotel and found out it is called a Javelina and although it looks like a pig, it is in the Peccary family.  We took some pictures, but they were not very clear as we took them through the car window.  This drive was also beautiful with an abundance of fall color made even more beautiful by the late day sun.

Not very good picture, but this is a Javelina with two young one.

It's getting late in the day and time to head back to Socorro and our hotel.

We completed the loop and started back to Socorro, and despite the lack of birds, we were still very happy that we had made this side trip today and thoroughly enjoyed it.  The area is beautiful and maybe someday we’ll visit during the winter and see the large number of birds that winter here.

It was nearing seven by the time we got back to Socorro, and we were both tired and didn’t feel like going to a restaurant, so we stopped at a grocery store and got a vegetable plate and some crackers and cheese for our dinner tonight.  We bought enough for lunch tomorrow since we probably won’t be near any place to eat as we are going to do two or three of our scenic drives tomorrow.

We got back to our hotel, had our “dinner” and relaxed for the rest of the evening.  Tomorrow we’ll be heading west of here hoping to do three of the scenic byways.

Scenic Drives Completed: 21 of 35

Scenic Drives Missed: 3

The overview map of our trip.  No scenic byways today, but a very scenic day of driving.

New Mexico Road Trip - Ruidoso Day 2

Monday, October 28, 2024

Because we covered four of the scenic byways in the Ruidoso area, we only have one of our scenic drives today and it's a short one.  We took advantage of that and slept in and had a leisurely morning.  We had a late breakfast in the hotel around 10:30 and had a very interesting talk with the Apache waiter.  He was very proud of his culture and talked with us at length about the history of the Mescalero Apache Tribe and reservation.  Our breakfast ended up taking over an hour, but we really enjoyed talking to him and learned a lot.

Only one our scenic drives to do today, Scenic Byway #28.

After breakfast it was time to hit the road for a drive up to the 10,200-foot-high Ski Apache Area, our last scenic drive in Ruidoso.  We had already driven this road back in 2017 when we had our annual Geezer Gathering in Ruidoso.  While at the gathering in 2017 Val and I and our friend Jack wanted to try the mile long zip line they had up there so that was our purpose then and it was a very exciting and scary adventure.

We start our climb to the top.

There was a terrible fire here two years ago that, on top of a fire in the same area the year before, was devastating to the area and as we drove up it was very evident.  Most of the trees were either gone or just skeletons standing on a barren land.  What was forested land is now barren land.  A large section of the drive up was washed out by the subsequent floods, but the road is now open, but it looks like some construction is still going on.

Although we could see burn areas all the way up the drive, it was very evident as we neared the top.

Even with the scars and damage from the fire, the drive was still very scenic, and the views were amazing.  The Ski Apache ski area and zip line remain closed but they hope to open next year and hopefully the reservation can recover from the financial loss caused by its closure.  We hope so as it was a very nice ski area, and the zip line was a lot of fun. 

The end of the road, Ski Apache is closed.

After reaching the closed ski area, we started back down to Ruidoso and the wind was very strong, but we didn’t know how strong it was until we stopped at a scenic viewpoint.  When I opened the door, it almost ripped the door out of my hands and any loose items in the front seat area were sucked out and blown over the edge.  I scrambled to collect what I could find and got everything that was important, but Val said she saw a few things go over the edge, but I didn’t miss anything so hopefully they were nothing important.

Val and I staggered over to the viewpoint walking against the blowing wind to the viewpoint edge and after taking a couple of pictures we hurried back to the car.  After Val got in the car, I had to have her turn it around so I could get in without a repeat of what happened when I got out.  We later learned that the wind was blowing up to 60 mph in the mountains and I believe it as neither of us had experienced that strong of a wind before.

You can see from Val's hair how windy it was.

You can see from the GPS screen how twisty this road was, it's quite a climb

After that we didn’t stop again and drove back to Ruidoso.  Ruidoso has a Hatch Chile shop and Val wanted to stop there so we spent some time looking around the shop.  She didn’t find what she was looking for, but did find some things for Christmas gifts.

Back to Ruidoso.

We arrived back at the Inn of the Mountain Gods in early afternoon and decided to spend a little time in the casino.  This turned out to be a fortuitous decision for both of us and particularly for me as we won a bit and made up some of what I’d lost over the last two nights.

We had eaten a late breakfast, so we weren’t hungry for lunch and returned to the room and relaxed for a while.  I downloaded the pictures and wrote a little for the blog and then went outside to take a few pictures of the grounds. 

The lake side of the Inn of the Mountain Gods.

 

Val is out on our balcony.

Those teepees weren't there yesterday, we don't know what they're for.

This is the center of the hotel with a wing going off to each side.  Inside there is the lobby, restaurants, meeting rooms and the casino.

We relaxed until early evening and then returned to the casino where our luck kind of continued.  We didn’t really win a lot, but did get to play for a while.  We started to get hungry do decided to see what was available in the food court.  It turned out to be a pretty good food court and I got a sweet and sour bowl and Val got a Navajo Taco.  A Navajo Taco is one of our favorite foods in the Southwest and is like a tostada except instead of a tortilla the use fry bread and is quite good.

After dinner we went back to the casino, but didn’t stay long as tomorrow is a travel day.  We will be heading over to Socorro where we’ll be spending two nights and of course, exploring several more scenic byways.

Scenic Drives Completed: 21 of 35

Since today is our last day in Ruidoso, we are adding two more missed scenic drives.  They are in the Carlsbad Caverns area and just too far out of the way of our loop.  We would have had to add four more days to our trip to complete them.  One of them near Carlsbad we have already done, but the other one we haven't done and it looked pretty interesting so maybe we'll do it on another trip.

Scenic Drives Missed: 3

We added five more scenic drives during our stay in Ruidoso, and we did add Scenic Byways 29 and 30 to our list of missed one.