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Sprucewood Cabin is nestled among the Ponderosa pines in the Upper Canyon of Ruidoso, NM. The Village of Ruidoso sits at 6900', and is home to Ruidoso Downs horse track, Inn of The Mountain Gods casino, Ski Apache and so much more. Sprucewood is just a mile from the main road, shops, and restaurants, 10 minutes from race track, and 25 minutes from ski slopes.
Cabin Amenities & Services
3 bedroom/2 bath
2 outdoor patios
Huge front and back yard for kids to play
Free Wi-Fi access
Roku Smart Tv's
Netflix
Disney Plus
Fully Stocked Kitchen
Hot Tub
Pet-friendly accommodations
Sprucewood Cabin
The Village of Ruidoso is home to many great restaurants. The following are just a few of our favorites:
Cornerstone Bakery tops our list as our #1 favorite place to eat in Ruidoso. We can't recommend it enough. It specializes in French favorites including enormous muffins of various kinds, croissants, empanadas, pies and cakes, breads of all kinds, cookies, and more. Their plated breakfasts and lunches are incredible, including unique Eggs Benedict, bagels w/lox, omelettes and crepes, plate-size Belgian waffles, and much more. If you are a coffee lover, you have to try their piñon coffee...a New Mexico staple. Cornerstone (in our opinion) is better than La Madeleine franchise.
Hall of Flame makes the best, juiciest, fully-packed hamburgers in all of Ruidoso, and arguably better than franchises such as Red Robin; the award plaques on their wall attest to it. They offer a variety French fries, such as gourmet herb and Parmesan, as well as apps like fried "bottle cap" jalapeños. But beware: If you eat there, you'll crave it when you get home. You'll just have to come back soon!
Cafe Rio is 100% really good pizza. Lines are usually waiting outside the door. They also offer pizza by the slice, to go. Call in an order and you don't have to wait.
El Paraiso is a family-run and owned authentic Mexican restaurant specializing in Mexico's recipes and ingredients, rather than Tex-Mex or New Mexico's southwest style. We particularly love their breakfast tacos.
Casa Blanca serves authentic Southwest food of New Mexico, emphasizing the native green chilies that surround New Mexico. The plates are huge. The food is excellent and familiar, ranging in fajitas, burgers, enchiladas, and more specialized entrees like green chilies cheese burger, melted queso burger, green chili chicken enchiladas, and much more...but with the Southwest-slant; the green chilies have a mild-medium spiciness. Again, there will likely be a line. The restaurant atmosphere is like a huge home; it has a central fireplace, various rooms, and log posts throughout, with loads of windows overlooking the woods behind it. There's also outdoor seating for summer meals, and a bar downstairs.
Rio Grande Grill is a good place for the beer and bar food lover. If you're into tasting unique craft beers, you'll find them here. They have a great tap room where you can buy a growler of beer to take home.
Log Cabin Restaurant is just that...a log cabin. It's primarily a breakfast place, closing around noon. You'll want to wake up for this. You'll definitely feel like you're on vacation in the woods just pulling up to it. Walking in, you'll be surrounded by a log cabin atmosphere with taxidermy on the walls. The waffles and pancakes are huge. It's great food (...but not quite as exceptional as Cornerstone's breakfast, but a very, very close 2nd; just sayin'.)
Village Buttery specializes in quiche, soups, deli sandwiches, a variety of unique salads (including spinach, pasta, and potato salads with gourmet vinaigrettes), and homemade desserts. Their catering menu includes more gourmet options. They have an outdoor patio. It's a great place for brunch or lunch.
*If you don't mind a 30-minute road trip and love barbecue, head to the town of Cloudcroft and plan to eat at Mad Jacks. Friendly warning: If you don't arrive by 11, you won't eat; it'll be sold out. I'm not kidding. (Ask me how we know.) Expect a very long line that goes pretty fast, and be assured that it is well-worth the wait. Jack is from Texas and uses Post Oak to smoke his meats overnight. Locals in Texas miss his barbecue, while customers in Ruidoso and Cloudcroft willingly drive an extra distance knowing what meal they'll be enjoying.
The Hidden Tap is a great place for a large assortment craft beers, other creative drinks, and great pub food
The Lost Hiker Brewing Company/Tap Room is another great place to go for creative craft beer
Dining recommendations
Lakes
There are 3 main lakes in Ruidoso area. About a mile from the cabin is Grindstone Lake, which has a good, easy hiking trail system around and behind the lake, as well as fishing, and a new floating water park in the summer.
Bonito Lake and Alto Lake are a little further, but worth the drive. Behind Alto Lake is a really nice, well-manicured, beautiful hiking trail. Picnics are welcome there. The full-circle walking path is probably over an hour of pretty easy walking...just long. There are benches along the path. In the Spring, after many rains, there are a couple of good-size waterfalls with gathering pools surrounded by car-size boulders to climb, overlooking the water. A picnic there would be pretty amazing. A little further past the first waterfall is another one.
Bonito Lake is further from the cabin than Alto, and is much larger. It's ideal for picnics, fishing, and has a campground area behind it.
hiking...easy or challenging
For hiking in the area, stop by the Happy Hiker in midtown (where all the shops are) and pick up a free trail map and some local free advice, because Ruidoso is loaded in phenomenal hiking trails ranging from easy and relatively flat, to more steep and even challenging. If you just want a convenient outdoor stroll in the woods that's close to the cabin, to soak up a little taste of Pines and forest, then head to Perk Canyon. It's just a 1/2 mile from Sprucewood, at the end of Perk Canyon Drive. Park and walk in! There are also good trails at the dead end of Flume Canyon Drive, and at the dead end of Cedar Creek Drive.
Great scenic drives
If hiking isn't your thing, we have many sightseeing drives that we highly recommend. The drive up to Monjeau Lookout has amazing scenery along the way, and the stone Lookout tower at the top of the mountain has 360-degree long-distance views that you'll want your camera for. We drive up to Monjeau almost every trip to Ruidoso (and annually pay under $10 to cut a Pine of our choice out of the woods to take home to Texas for our Christmas tree!).
You might just see elk, and the wild, un-owned horses that run free and graze on the mountain pastures...which is quite a fantastic and surreal sight to the way it "used to be" in the Wild West days. You might see black bears, too.
bear viewing
If you are staying in Ruidoso during the Spring or Summer, when the bears are the most active, just head downhill from Sprucewood to the Main road, turn right, and drive throughout Upper Canyon neighborhood, including over the river/bridge down to the dead end and Mescalero Indian reservation. The bears LOVE getting food out of the dumpsters along the way, particularly just before the sun goes down. If you see trash on the roads surrounding a dumpster, and forming a path behind the dumpster, a bear had recently been there. Drive slow, get your camera ready, and look around every cabin from your car....you might just see them in action. They won't attack your car, so use it as a safe haven to take pictures and video of them. Bear cubs will jump right into dumpsters, and some will climb up trees or rub their backs on them. They're super entertaining.
If ever you come across a bear while on foot, just keep looking at it face-forward, while walking slowly backwards. They'll typically just watch you. We've been in that situation twice, and both time they just watched us walk backwards and didn't budge. Ruidoso has pamphlets for how to deal with bears in person.
Elk viewing
If you want to see elk in the wild, the top of Sierra Blanca...Ski Apache...is a great spot. But, to see tame elk in large herds for photo ops, head to the neighborhoods surrounding the golf course off Mechem. They're everywhere!
seasonal activities
Spring/Summer:
-Grindstone Lake area:
*has a shaded, wooded disc golf course; bring your own frisbees/discs
*horseback riding
*picnics
*drive through it to head towards Inn of Mountain Gods for casino
*drive through it to head to Cloudcroft
-Grinstone Lake:
*has floating inflatable water park
*fishing
*hiking trails
-Alto Lake:
*hiking, fishing, picnics
-Bonito Lake:
*fishing, hiking, picnics, biking, camping
-Flying J Wranglers dinner/show. This truly cannot be missed, if it's open. The outdoor western town atmosphere, shops, and games are perfect for family activity. The outdoor western gunfight skit is fun. The food is great (and all you can eat), and the entertainment is phenomenal. Their music honors the trailriding cowboys and chuckwagon cooks of pre-1900s Wild West. You'll recognize many of the tunes. They're incredible singers and musicians, and there's dry comedy and skits threaded throughout the entire thing between songs; they have a mixed variety of shows, so repeat visitors might just see a different show when they go back for 2nds...(15ths in our case). Every person who has ever gone can't wait to go back, and has seen several different shows there. Helpful advice: Call and set up a reservation; the earliest you arrive there to check in, the closer to the stage your table will be for the whole show. The timing of your *reservation doesn't count toward where your table is located; only the timing of your check-in does. However, no matter where you sit, the show is great and you won't miss a thing visually.
-White Sands in Alamogordo (to sled down huge mounds of sand)
-Tour the historical and notorious town of Lincoln and learn about Billy the Kid; the town still has goods in the General Store
-Smokey the Bear museum
-Mescalero Apache's Inn of the Mountain Gods casino, restaurants and lake for fishing, on their reservation (past Grindstone)
-Horse tracks at Ruidoso Downs for the races. Lots of fun. Free to get in. Lunch available. Seats are free. You can watch the whole thing for free, or gamble as little as a dollar per race just to participate, or blow your savings account. It's also just fun to see the horses up close, and stand against the railing that divides the track and speeding by horse from the audience...putting you just feet from the horses as they gallop by.
-Antiquing. There are several great antique shops in Ruidoso that sell actual "antiques"...items over 100 years old. You can easily spend a whole day just visiting them and going home with an old, authentic keepsake. Yesterday is one of them; huge store, packed full of genuine pre-1900's treasures. "Re-Store" is a charming, Magnolia-type shop, filled with authentic antiques, but primarily re-purposed/upcycled ones that have been made into something new...such as strainers turned to chandeliers. They have a large modern-industrial and steampunk section, too. Behr Barn is good, though mostly vintage items (less than 100-yrs old); if you aren't picky about age, it has Depression glass, and all kinds of stuff. Lotza Stuff is a mix of antiques and brand new things, and is made up of 2 huge buildings. The Ruidoso Emporium is huge and has authentic antiques.
-Shopping in town. Just along the main strip of Ruidoso midtown you'll find clothing boutiques with unique women's clothing, several candy stores, a toy store, home decor shops, consignment stores, soap and candle shops, artist galleries, cheese and wine tasting places, leather/purses/bags, Western home decor shops like Two Bears Trading Post with everything antler/fur/knives, etc, Brunelle's outdoor clothing and shoes, souvenir shops, restaurants, and even a Christmas store that jam-packed with every kind of ornament and decoration, even in Summer; when you walk in the door, the owner will automatically tell you how many days until Christmas. Eat a burger at Hall of Flame or pizza at Cafe Rio, get dessert or an Italian soda at Sabor, and pop into each place. Re-Store antique shop is the far end (opposite of cabin). Friendly suggestion: For a true taste of the Old West and fine craftsmanship, stop in to Two Bears Trading Post and tell Mark and Barbara that Steve and Gretchen Bradbury said hello; he's the epitome of "mountain man" who not only built the actual shop, but also made just about every single thing in it from the skins, lamps, knive handles, decorations, you name it; you'll be highly impressed. (*He has no idea I wrote any of this about them or their shop...I'm just giving you really good and honest advice.)
-Zip-line at Ski Apache
-Fun Trackers for mini-golf, bumper boats, etc
-picnics/hiking trails/take a stroll through Upper Canyon, or sit on porch and admire the trees
-the local elementary school has an AMAZING and HUGE playground that's open to the public. Tunnels, swings, bridges, tires, and so much more. Take the family and you'll be there a long time, if you have little ones that need to burn up some energy.
Winter activities:
-Ski Apache with many different slopes, and a skiing school and bunny slope. It also has a restaurant upstairs.
-tubing in the snow at Winter Park...by Bonito Lake
-Sleigh rides at Grindstone area
-carriage rides in Upper Canyon
-if there's enough snow, sled in our yard or in the street by our house, before they come and scrape off the roads. Lots of fun! (I have videos of that in our shop page, under the "Ruidoso Snow" room spray or candle.)
-elk viewing (don't forget neighborhoods by golf course to see them, too!)
