Children's Attractions in Ruidoso, New Mexico. Children's Attractions in Ruidoso, New Mexico include outdoors activities, a Smokey the Bear Museum, horse racing, and a stagecoach ride. One of the biggest...
One of the biggest draws to the area is just the fact that we are surrounded by a national forest, so we get a lot of families going camping, hiking, and mountain biking. We also have hunting and fishing. The ski area traditionally opens up on Thanksgiving Day and runs through the end of March. We usually try to take it through Easter, but that just depends upon when Easter falls on the calendar. Our ski area allows snowboarding.
Our race track is open from Memorial Weekend to Labor Day Weekend, and it is one of the few horse tracks in the country that allows children. You can actually get right up next to the track to hug the rail and watch the horses come thundering down the stretch.
The Hubbard Museum of the American West is a marvelous museum tracing the westward expansion of America. It has some special exhibits just for kids where they can dress up, climb into the starting gate to see what that feels like to be a jockey, and other things. We have a putt-putt golf course and go-kart area as well complete with a rock climbing wall and bumper boats. Grindstone Lake has paddle boats and fishing.
We have a wonderful Smokey the Bear Museum that kids really enjoy, because it takes them through the history of fire fighting, talks about the forest service, and talks about the story of Smokey. The real Smokey is buried there.
We have a gentleman who runs an actual stagecoach line pulled by his four horses. You can either ride on top or inside, and he'll stop halfway through to allow everyone to switch places. He explains the history of the stage coach and its impact on the west.
