Skiing at Cloudcroft, New Mexico

Finally! We went to ski with the kids! Daddy has been planning and waiting for years for this moment since he last snow ski / snowboards at Beaver Creek, Colorado. Going to ski alone would be a challenge since mommy will have to take care of two very active kids while daddy is gone for hours. And more importantly, it will be much more fun if we could all ski together! Daddy had a plan but for now we digress that to another blog post.

Since we were driving from Houston, we tried to find somewhere closer to ski. Colorado is too far for us, so we zoomed in on New Mexico. There are some popular ski resorts like Taos Ski Valley, Angel Fire and etc. Our goal is to get the kids to be able ski. Since it has been years since daddy's last ski, we wanted the kids to take ski lesson. You probably already know skiing is an expensive sport. Ski lift tickets and lessons are very expensive especially during the Christmas holiday season. One adult lift ticket could easily cost more than $100 a day. On top of that we also need ski rental. Ski lesson is also quite pricy. The total cost could range around $150-$250 (or more) per person per day in popular ski resorts. It is only slightly cheaper for kid.

We ultimately chose Ski Cloudcroft. Here are a few reasons. It is the southernmost ski area in New Mexico, means closest to Texas. It is not as popular compares to others and has much lesser crowd. It is family-oriented business and staffs are very friendly. It also has snow tubing. We were surprised many popular ski resorts don't have that. The cost of ski lift ticket, rental and lesson are very reasonable. At the time of writing, they offer a ski lesson package of $90 which includes 2 hours of beginner group lesson, rental and lift ticket.

Ski Cloudcroft has a tubing area, bunny hill and mountain ski. We were planning the kids can play on snow tubing in one afternoon and another day for ski lesson and ski. Unfortunately, the tubing was closed due to mechanical issue the day we went. A popular tubing park at Ruidoso was also fully sold out. So, we hit some trails at Lincoln National Forest instead.

Osha Trail

Trestle Vista Observation and Bridge a.k.a. Cloud-Climbing Railroad. It is amazing and crazy at the same time that this railroad trestle was used to transport timbers from the forest.

It was about 4pm and we headed back to our motel called Dusty Boots Motel. Why 4pm? It was Christmas day (Merry Christmas!) and the motel owner prepared dinner for us! We were utterly dumbfounded when we got a phone call a few days ago from the owner right after we made a reservation. We were told that the motel cafeteria will be closed on Christmas day, and they will prepare complementary dinner for all guests. She even offered to save some food for us if we weren't able to make it in time! That was 180 degrees from the experience we had just an hour ago with other hotel manager where we were told that our hotel reservation has been cancelled with no apparent reasons and he hang up the phone. Imagine your hotel reservation at a remote area was cancelled just days before the busiest season!

Remember that Cloudcroft is a very small town where most businesses are family owned? Most employees were out for Christmas and the owner family served us. We felt so grateful and really appreciate the hospitality, ambience and friendliness.

Here is our dinner! This reminds daddy university's life where many local families host events and offer international students' traditional foods during Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday.

By the way, the motel room was very clean and nicely decorated with western theme. It is equipped with hot water, gas heater as well as portable heater. We were lucky to find this place which is just 5 minutes away to our ski area. After a good night sleep, we were ready to ski!

Woke up early and enjoyed the complementary homemade banana cake (another +1 to the motel). Got to the ski resort and tried out the ski gear. Ready for the lesson. It was about 12 people with an instructor and an assistant. A couple of students appear already knew how to ski but simply joining with their family. The instructor was super friendly. She taught us basics and after about an hour, we all attempted to ski down the bunny hills.

We were surprised how quickly the kids pick up the skill. After one round of instructor-assisted downhill ski, didi started skiing on his own! Jaw dropped! Gege was also able to ski on his own after a few rounds. Daddy actually enjoyed more watching and filming them skiing than skiing on his own :) The ski area was not crowded, and everyone was able to go on the lift almost immediately and ski down again.

After about 3 hours of skiing, we ate our lunch at the resort restaurant. The price is pretty reasonable as well. Unlike those ski resort restaurant with high price tag for regular food.

After lunch, the kids couldn't wait and headed back to ski again for another 2 hours. Unbelievable. They really had a good time. Especially for didi, he wanted to go on mountain so he can ski more and spend less time on lift and stepping up on the bunny hill. Yeah, we will hit mountain next time!

We recommended Ski Cloudcroft for any family who want to bring their kids to learn how to ski!