Ruidoso, NM

Tim, Jenny, Nathan and I went to Ruidoso yesterday. It is about an hour's dirve from Alamogordo but it seems like it is a world away. It is located in the Sierra Blanca Mountain Range which merges with the Sacramento Mountains. Ruidoso is 6928 ft about sea level with a population of 8029. It is the third fastest growing city in New Mexico mostly due to its location in the mountains. The median income is $37,100 and its median age is 46. Ruidoso got its name from the Mexican settlers years ago. Originally it was called Rio Ruidoso which meant noisy river due to the small stream that weaves through the city.
Today, Ruidoso is a mecca to the desert towns and is a huge attracation to Texans who come to Ruidoso to get out of the heat of Texas especially this summer. The merchants were sad yesterday because most of the Texan tourists were leaving town due to school starting this week.
The town has a beautiful downtown shopping area with several different shops full of Indian jewerly, clothing, souvenirs, old west items, great restaurants and more. There were some unigue stores we went into like The Old West store also known as the "Man's store". It was located in a log cabin and looked like a store from the old west. It specialized in Old West decor, Antlers, guns, cigars, etc. Then there was the Wine and Olive Oil store with Wine and Olive Oil tastings. There were 12 different Olive oils and four vingerettes. Some of the olive oils were garlic, basil, jalepeno,etc. It was an interesting store full of flavor. The clothes stores were similar to ones you find in any of the tourist shopping areas but styles mostly repressented the southwest.
We did have a huge thunderstorm move in while we were shopping and it felt like it was right on top of us with lightning strikes everywhere and thunder that shook the walls of the stores. It even hailed. The good thing the storm didn't last too long and the sun came back out. The temperature was a cool 65 and felt great. Ruidoso is a charming mountain town with log cabins and mountain homes surrounding the town and overlooking the Sierra Blanca mountains. It has the feel of being on vacation.
This week I will be writing about Lincoln County which is where Ruidoso is located. Lincoln county is where the wild west was the real thing. I will also have more pictures of Ruidoso and the surrounding area. The pictures along are worth coming back for.