Taos or Ruidoso New Mexico?

[jestmaty]

I'm planning a drive to show my kids snow and mountains and skiing. We've decided to drive to either town on December 19th.

Ruidoso is a bit closer, about 775 miles, and the resort area is known as 'Ski Apache'. I've heard of it, but it appears that as of today, there is very little snow, with only about 7% of the slopes open, and that is because of man-made snow.

Taos is right at 900 miles and is getting snow as we speak and has a good, deep base as of today.

I don't mind driving an extra couple of hours if Taos would be a better experience. Our plan is to leave Friday Dec 19th at like 10pm. I'm a good night driver. Ruidoso is about 14 hours and Taos is 16 hours away.

Doing the math, I would probably arrive sometime early afternoon on Saturday. We get comfortable with our surroundings that afternoon and plan to hit the slopes Sunday and Monday. Maybe just poke around on Tuesday and leave sometime that day.

We live in Houston and our vacations over the last 10 years or so have been cruises to the Caribbean and theme park destinations in Central Florida. My boys are 8 and 12 and have agreed to "try" to not make the drive too unpleasant.

I've learned over the years how to diffuse a cranky child on a long drive.

Just pull over and let 'em out!!!



We always fly to our destinations, but with gas being cheap for now, we are going to try another way..... drive.

Anybody have any thoughts as to which area would be better for a short vacation?

Thanks..... Jestmaty

[sblvro]

I'm planning the denver and salt lake city slopes come christmas. hope there is snow in that area also driving the pilot and have been looking for tire chains. anybody in that neck of the woods suggest some nice spots?

[RSQ Pilot]

Originally posted by jestmaty
I'm planning a drive to show my kids snow and mountains and skiing. We've decided to drive to either town on December 19th.

Doing the math, I would probably arrive sometime early afternoon on Saturday. We get comfortable with our surroundings that afternoon and plan to hit the slopes Sunday and Monday. Maybe just poke around on Tuesday and leave sometime that day.

My boys are 8 and 12 ...


We always fly to our destinations, but with gas being cheap for now, we are going to try another way..... drive.

Anybody have any thoughts as to which area would be better for a short vacation?

Thanks..... Jestmaty

Taos is BEAUTIFUL any time of year. Lots to see in the way of art and craft shops, pueblos, Kit Carson home, LOTS of shopping. NM Viet Nam Memorial isn't too far away. Hiked up and down many of the TSV runs but Winter is the only season that we have missed in Taos/TSV.

I am not an avid skiier but have skiied the Salt Lake/ Park City UT areas when the kids were in high school. We never had skiied before then and loved it. We went back several more years. Made it to the intermediate level slopes, they were enough FUN for me! If you have never skiied before ski school is highly recommended, generally includes your equipment rental and lift tickets. Check for package deals on alll that stuff.
...I don't know too much about the skiing part of it but if you are a newbie 24 % of the TSV runs are rated beginner level. They also have tubing area. That should keep you all entertained.
From a Taos Ski Valley brochure
"Fifty-one percent of Taos' runs are rated expert, and half of the expert runs are double-black diamonds. Intermediates will have a field day with great steep cruising. Beginners are limited or challenged, depending on how one looks at the terrain. But first-timers have a surprisingly good isolated area to learn. Rise up to meet Taos' challenge. If you normally ski blue runs at other resorts, you can ski Taos. It may be tough at first, but persist—you'll catch on. Taos can be an extremely rewarding ski experience because of its challenge. The runs demand you give it your best. Beginners and intermediates will find 100 percent of their terrain is covered with snowmaking."

Have Fun

[sblvro]

Originally posted by RSQ Pilot

Taos is BEAUTIFUL any time of year. Lots to see in the way of art and craft shops, pueblos, Kit Carson home, LOTS of shopping. NM Viet Nam Memorial isn't too far away. Hiked up and down many of the TSV runs but Winter is the only season that we have missed in Taos/TSV.

I am not an avid skiier but have skiied the Salt Lake/ Park City UT areas when the kids were in high school. We never had skiied before then and loved it. We went back several more years. Made it to the intermediate level slopes, they were enough FUN for me! If you have never skiied before ski school is highly recommended, generally includes your equipment rental and lift tickets. Check for package deals on alll that stuff.
...I don't know too much about the skiing part of it but if you are a newbie 24 % of the TSV runs are rated beginner level. They also have tubing area. That should keep you all entertained.
From a Taos Ski Valley brochure
"Fifty-one percent of Taos' runs are rated expert, and half of the expert runs are double-black diamonds. Intermediates will have a field day with great steep cruising. Beginners are limited or challenged, depending on how one looks at the terrain. But first-timers have a surprisingly good isolated area to learn. Rise up to meet Taos' challenge. If you normally ski blue runs at other resorts, you can ski Taos. It may be tough at first, but persist—you'll catch on. Taos can be an extremely rewarding ski experience because of its challenge. The runs demand you give it your best. Beginners and intermediates will find 100 percent of their terrain is covered with snowmaking."

Have Fun

first time skiing and the skiing part I can handle, not the ski lift though

[jestmaty]

We're all novice skiiers.

Last time I skiied was well before my now 12 yr old son was born. I'm thinking at least 15 years.

Now water skiing is a different story. I do that about 6 times each summer

I know some ski areas are more geared toward thrill-seekers, but almost all of 'em have a beginner area.

We are more interested in the 'doing something new, scenery, snowball throwing, bitter cold, being in the real mountains type of experience. Heck, it's 78 degrees today here in Houston!

Went to my mom's house today to measure it for some carpet, and she had the air conditioner on!

My main concern in preparing for this trip is the potential for snowfall while we are there and the amount of snow already on the ground. It seems like Taos has a better chance of doing/having that than Ruidoso

[RSQ Pilot]

Taos area should fit the bill.

View looking down from the Al's Run ski lift, Taos Ski Valley. It's July so no snow obscuring the runs which you can see from the lift chair.

[sblvro]

Originally posted by RSQ Pilot
Taos are should fit the bill.

View looking down from the Al's Run ski lift, Taos Ski Valley. It's July so no snow obscuring the runs which you can see from the lift chair.

I'll just stick to snowball throwing

[RSQ Pilot]

Then again....if you are afraid of heights, the lift ride may not be quite so much fun

[sblvro]

no lift ride! period! I'll just take pictures!

[Jet-Pilot-64]

Taos is a pretty tough ski area. They have beginner slopes, but it's a pretty steep mountain. That being said, I'd still go to Taos for the mountain experience. While you're there make sure and visit the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. It's awesome! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Grande_Gorge_Bridge

[colorider]

Moved to "Off-Topic"

(BTW, my vote would be for Taos)

[jestmaty]

Booked the hotel tonight for Ruidoso, NM and ski apache.

The tough part is the drive. Gas is just so cheap, we are going to "Pilot" our way there. Ruidoso is about 750 miles and Taos is closer to 900+ miles. Driving 12 hours vs 15 is a big difference.

Both mountains only have 20-25% beginner slopes.... Taos and Ski Apache. We are not hard core skiiers and would be fine just poking around on a gentle slope. Almost all resorts have some kind of bunny run and that is our goal.

We last saw snow, (if you can believe this...) on Christmas Eve in New Orleans, Louisiana back in 2004. Although, we did get some brief flurries about 5 days ago in Houston. Today's temp outside was 78 degrees and had to run the a/c in the Pilot.

We are really looking forward to the scenery, mountains, and experience of doing something new as a family.

Now, does anyone have any suggestions for 'don't miss' things to do in the Ruidoso area? We are thinking of stopping in Roswell on the trip home to see what kind of weirdness is in that city.

[jestmaty]

Actually..... we changed our minds 7 days before departure and went with Taos.

It was exactly a 15 hour drive as the GPS and internet maps said it would take. Overall, it wasn't too bad of a drive. We left Christmas night, as in 3:30 am and arrived about 5:30 pm on Friday. Taos is on mountain time and we were coming in from central time, so we gained 1 hour when we crossed the border into NM.

The scary part was that I pushed the departure date up about 24 hours because the weather reports only called for snow on Friday, Dec 26th. I timed it such that in the last couple of hours of my 15 hour drive, I had to cross a pretty high mountain pass during a severe snow storm AND it was getting dark.

I really, really wanted my kids to see it snow while we were there.

Had to white-knuckle my way over and down into the Taos area for the last 75 miles or so.

The Pilot drank 95 gallons of gas during the 1909 overall mile trip. That breaks down into something like 1750 miles of hwy and 159 miles of "putting" around Taos. Found out that our hotel was exactly 20 miles from the TSV (Taos Ski Valley) mountain, so each day to the slopes was a 40 mile r/t event.

Do the math and you'll see I averaged 20 mpg over the entire drive. I'm pleased with that because I was averaging about 21-22 on the freeways and I was fully and heavily loaded in the Pilot. The 'city' mileage was still good because of the relatively slow driving that the Taos streets dictate.

Did a fair amount of D2 and D3 driving up in the mountains. IIRC, our hotel was at 7000 feet above sea level and the parking for the resort was at 9300 feet. So, as you can imagine, each trip up and down the mountain was a gas guzzling adventure with the Pilot hitting vtec occasionally and the altitude changes have to negatively affected my mileage during those jaunts.

More to come later..... family is waking up right now on Sat am and I'm going out to get donuts, kolaches, and milk.

[colorider]

Glad you made it back home safe and sound!!! Taos is one of our favorite places to visit, although we have never been there in the winter time. I HAVE been snowed on in Taos in May while passing through on a motorcycle!!!