I only have one shot to get my wife into this! Ruidoso, NM

[Rule Number 32]

My wife and I are taking our annual anniversary trip this year to Ruidoso. Problem is, we are saving for a trip to Europe next summer, so we are only taking 2 days this year. I have always enjoyed geocaching and always went with my dad and my older brother, but I had taken a break the last few years. Since then, I have met and married my wife and I am really hoping to start back up and get her involved. I think she would like it a lot if I can get her to some neat caches.

 

We live in a suburb of Houston, TX, so there really arent any real neat ones out here. I took her this last weekend and she enjoyed it but was bored after about 20 minutes. I am REALLY hoping to find the best caches in Ruidoso so that I can get her to see why I do this. I do it for the adventure and to be led to places that ordinarily you wouldnt get to see.

 

Does anyone out there have any recommendations for caches that we should hit up in Ruidoso or Lincoln? I am just looking for anything that would take us somewhere new or to a view or something that you wouldnt normally see. Bonus points for something that incorporates the history of the area, as my wife is a huge history buff.

 

I know this has probably been asked about before but I couldnt find it on the search. Thanks for your help and hopefully I'll have a new permanent geocaching partner!

[+geodarts]

You may want to look at the New Mexico Geocaching site and either post something on the forums there or contact local cachers around Ruidoso by emailing people who have placed caches there or hosted local events. I have gotten friendly advice both ways.

 

A few years ago, we went to the great Three Rivers Petroglyph earthcache before heading through Lincoln along 380 (on our way to Roswell). Lincoln was an unexpected surprise and I enjoyed some of the caches along the way that pointed to the history of the area (often virtuals as I recall, but I notice some newer ones like the Lincoln Torreon that combine history and "traditional" caching). I have been wanting to return to swing down to the White Sands earthcache and explore the area more. Perhaps next year. Enjoy your trip!

Edited July 13, 2010 by mulvaney

[hoosier guy]

You may want to look at the New Mexico Geocaching site and either post something on the forums there or contact local cachers around Ruidoso by emailing people who have placed caches there or hosted local events. I have gotten friendly advice both ways.

 

A few years ago, we went to the great Three Rivers Petroglyph earthcache before heading through Lincoln along 380 (on our way to Roswell). Lincoln was an unexpected surprise and I enjoyed some of the caches along the way that pointed to the history of the area (often virtuals as I recall, but I notice some newer ones like the Lincoln Torreon that combine history and "traditional" caching). I have been wanting to return to swing down to the White Sands earthcache and explore the area more. Perhaps next year. Enjoy your trip!

 

Hey I just worked my way through that are (380 & Roswell) last week on vacation had a great time and met some really neat folks.

 

Hey Rule, hope you have a good trip. Just a small piece of advice. The actual cache is a minor part of the experience. Make sure your wife has a good time on the way there and enjoys herself. When I tried to get my kids interested in backpacking the destination wasn't as important as having plenty of water, good snacks, letting them set the pace, and just generally working to help them enjoy the walk in the woods. Y'all know your lovely bride's likes & dislikes. Make it fun for her. Tryig to find a cache that appeals to her interests is a really good start Bro! See ya onthe trail.

[Rule Number 32]

Thanks yall! Good advice from both of you. I will definitely add the lincoln torreon cache to my list! That one looks pretty neat. My wife is big into history, so I am really trying to find some of the caches that stress the history of the area.

 

I've tried to show my wife the idea behind what you were saying hoosier, but it is hard to show her it is about the adventure when the ones close to us in Houston are all park and grabs or micros. Those just dont seem as adventurous. I love the ones where you have to go through the wilderness to find them, but we just do not have that much wilderness left around here! Thats why I was really hoping to find some neat views along the way that we wouldnt have seen otherwise.

 

I will definitely try to contact some of the new mexico geocachers. I have a post on their forums and have gotten some good replies. This trip is really starting to take shape, and it looks like we are going to spend all day Friday making the trek around the Billy the Kid loop doing some geocaches and hitting up the local museums. She is excited about it and thats all I can ask!

 

Thanks again to both of you.

[hoosier guy]

I'm sure she will appreciate the effort you are putting in on her behaft. We stopped in lincoln and had a blast. The docents in the hisoric buildings were very friendly and helpful. ArrowSmiths is a nice little gift shop to pick up a momento or two.

 

Let us know how it goes.

[+armadillogal]

Any caches by BLMBILBO are great and usually have history....he ran a geofest not too long ago & we had a blast. still have a few to get from that...in ruidoso there are a bunch by okieduo too...she was at the geofest. Skyhook is another one. The one called Noisy Water is good by the old mill...in Lincoln there's one behind the Lincoln Courthouse...several by Fort Stanton, and one by the Billy the Kid Visitors Center in Ruidoso Downs. I liked the two that were by Grindstone Lake...and the disc golf one....and if you go by the visitors cenhter in Ruuidoso Sky Hook works right next door...there's one right by his office....one on themain drag by the Import shop.

 

Two days will not be enough...LOL....

 

Good Luck,

armadillogal from Alamogordo

 

if you ever get here I have 13 planted now.

[+Chuy!]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but from my experience, your lovely new wife will either like caching or she will not. There's very little middle ground. My wife enjoys hitting the trails with me to go caching but she doesn't get the caching part. She supports my hobby 100%, but hobbies tend to be like that - one either enjoys them a lot or not at all. I have taken my wife to fun caches; she will appreciate the creativity but, again, the caching aspect will not stick.

[+map4navigation]

Mrs Map never gets excited about the actual "cache" itself part!! But she has enjoyed meeting all the great people associated with caching and the events we go to. Also, She never backs out of a great hike to get to a cache thats on my radar. Good luck!

[Rule Number 32]

Thanks for the additional responses. I know she probably wont ever get into the caching aspect, but I can try! She has enjoyed it all so far, except for the one cache that got us into an area where there were a bunch of ticks and we had to pick a few of them off my body. Lets just say I screamed like a little girl at first because I had no clue what was on me!

 

We are driving up from El Paso tomorrow, so I am hoping to stop in Alamogordo to possibly hit a few caches along the way.

 

Thanks again everyone. I am really looking forward to this trip to get out of the Texas heat!

[+geodarts]

How did it go?

[Rule Number 32]

Thanks everyone. I meant to come back and update this when we got home, but it slipped my mind.

 

My wife really enjoyed the little bit of geocaching that we got to do around Ruidoso. We made the trek from Ruidoso to Lincoln, then to Fort Stanton, then Capitan and back to Ruidoso the 2nd day there. It was a quicker trip than I thought it would be. Altogether, it took us about 6 hours to do the trip including a few stops for geocaching and a stop in Ruidoso and Fort Stanton.

 

Our favorite geocache was just outside Ruidoso headed towards Lincoln. I cant remember the number, but it was next to an old church with a graveyard. My wife went and explored the area while I found the geocache. After that, we did a couple more around the area, but I didnt get to hit any between Lincoln and Fort Stanton. I couldnt get ANY cell reception there, and since I use my iphone as my gps, we were out of luck. We did a couple quick caches around capitan and then headed back to Ruidoso.

 

Overall it was a fun trip and it got us out of the Texas heat for a few days. I'd love to go back and hit some of the harder caches in the area sometime though!