Ruidoso, New Mexico--Off the Beaten Path

We decided that we wanted to stay near Ruidoso, New Mexico, even though we had already explored much of the most popular tourist areas. Plus, we found a great campground on the east side of town that would allow us to explore some things off the beaten path. It was just a 15-mile drive to the new campground, so we didn't even hook up the pickup. We got the rare picture of the motor home pulling into a campground without a tow vehicle attached.

This is the first-come-first-served Rob Jagger BLM Campground. We love BLM campsites, but they almost always have no hookups. Here we have electricity and water for only $10 per night. We also have a great view of the Capitan Mountains from our site.

The very friendly campground host explained that this is one of the few mountain ranges in North America that runs east to west. We could also see that in the middle of the Capitan Range is a low spot known as Capitan Gap.

We love signs that point out the names of the peaks in front of us. They range from the gap at 4,643 feet, to Summit Peak at 10,201 feet.

Our campground is just five miles from the little town of Capitan, New Mexico, with a grocery store and several restaurants. We also wanted to visit the Smokey Bear Historical Park, so we headed into town our first day. Even though their posted hours showed they were supposed to be open, they were not. So we could only look at the outdoor signs that explained that Capitan Gap is where Smokey the Bear was found as a badly burned cub after a fire burnt his home in 1950. The little cub was found clinging to a charred tree when fire fighters rescued him. He grew up to become the living symbol of fire prevention. We could peek over the fence to see where Smokey the Bear is buried within sight of the Capitan mountains.

Our campground is still in sight of the ski peaks with their smatterings of snow to our west. We also found miles of gravel forest service roads to explore off the beaten path.

We drove out to the Fort Stanton Cave, with forty miles of mapped passageways and a large population of bats. But we found that it was also closed to the public. Because of the spread of white nose syndrome among bat caves in North America, the chain link fence had four different locks on it to prevent people from going into the cave and spreading the virus.

No paved roads lead to the Capitan Mountains, but we tried to get as close as possible for a hike. Our four-wheel-drive pickup can take us down some of the gravel roads, but we finally had to turn around when Denisa started screaming. She does that when parts of the pickup (other than the tires) make contact with the gravel road.

So we parked and made a loop hike across the desert landscape, with the mountains still very far away in the background.

We assume that water once flowed in the bottom of these canyons. We found an old rickety aerial cart that went over the canyon. Even though Mark tried to ride it over the canyon, he finally joined Denisa in hiking down and back up, rather than riding across.

We didn't see another human being on our drive and hike off the beaten path. But we did find some surprised birds that weren't used to having company. Many of them flew before we got close enough for a good picture.

But this meadow lark posed for a picture . . .

as did this blue mountain jay.

Our friendly campground host stopped by to check on us at our camp site, and told us that the little grocery store in Capitan had a first-rate meat market. He spends his winter here, eating whatever meat they have on sale each week. We tried his strategy, and found these thick-cut sirloin steaks that Mark grilled up. At just $3.99 per pound, that will keep us fed for a week!

We really love finding these comfortable first-come-first-served government camp sites off the beaten path. In April it was uncrowded, and the birds loved to pose for us on the fence beside our rig.

We visited with our camping neighbors, and enjoyed the wide view of the clouds and landscape around us.

The campground host pointed out that the only time that this large campground gets busy is during the scheduled horse-back trail rides. The miles of gravel roads and trails around Rob Jagger Campground make for great mountain bike and equestrian rides. For us, it was just a great respite off the beaten path near Ruidoso, New Mexico.