Need some help, Travel Board!

The wife is planning a family trip to Cloudcroft, NM, in the hopes of seeing snow, for sometime after the new year (early Jan). Having never been to NM during that time of the year, is there a reasonable expectation to see/play in snow?...that being the main point of the trip

We're trying to find something drivable from Houston for us and three kids (11, 9, & 6) that would involve snow, that isn't going to be a budget buster. We're not looking to go all out at a ski resort or anything. Right now we've got an AirBnB in Alamogordo, but is that going to be close enough to anything worthwhile? Essentially, we're looking to hike, ski (if possible), sledding, and other outdoorsy-type stuff.

Are there better places to visit within 10-12 hours driving of Houston that would provide more/better snowy excursions?

Also, as far as driving goes, are we good driving our Expy Max 2WD around in the snow? I would suspect so, providing we leave plenty of space in front for braking and don't drive like a general jackass. We've got all-terrain tires on it right now.

TIA!

Definitely no guarantee of snow in town. It could be bone dry or could be buried. The ski area just outside of town will at minimum having tubing and bunny slope running with artificial snow.

If you are staying in Alamogordo, the drive from Alamogordo to Cloudcroft won't be fun if it happens to be snowy. Also, Alamogordo itself doesn't have a lot going on. It's convenient for White Sands access and the space history museum in town is neat (but small). Other than that, it is a flat desert town and doesn't have a lot to keep kids entertained.

We live in Ruidoso, which would overall be similar distance from Houston (took me about 10 hours getting home from CS this past Sunday). It's bigger than Cloudcroft and will have more lodging options and more to keep kids occupied outside of snow. It's a little lower elevation than Cloudcroft (7000-ish feet instead of 9000-ish) and thus a little less likely to have snow on the ground in town, but there is a great tubing area just north of town (Ruidoso Winter Park) that makes gobs of snow and can be really fun for the kids. Ski Apache outside Ruidoso is a much larger ski area than Cloudcroft has, but early January is very hit or miss on the quality of snow. It can also be a pretty gnarly drive to Ski Apache even when dry if you aren't used to windy mountain roads with no shoulder and limited guardrails.

If you come to Cloudcroft or Ruidoso, be sure to hit Carlsbad Caverns on the way here or way back. Roswell is a tourist trap and I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to see it. Lincoln is worth a day excursion if you like history, they've done a great job preserving historical buildings from the time of Billy the Kid. White Sands is a must do day excursion with kids, be sure to grab some round disc sleds (a lot of AirBnBs keep some on hand for their guests to use). Some other neat things to see in the area, but a little out of the way, would be Three Rivers Petroglyphs and Valley of Fires.

We did a similar trip spring break this year. We spent the night in Carlsbad caverns and did the cave. We spent 2 nights in Alamogordo doing white sands once in the morning for sledding and once I. The evening for sunset.
We did some hikes in the mountains towards Cloudcroft. There was just a little snow left on the ground so did a detour to readosa for the fake snow at the snow tubing place. The fake snow was just ok.
We made sure and stop at a number of roadside attractions…there was a place to feed trout in a pond, there's the pastacio place.
All in all a memorable trip for everyone…just had to have expectations low on snow cause we k ew it would be hit or miss.

The two previous were great advice. The only alternative I would offer is that you might consider northern New Mexico. Longer drive, but much more likely to have snow. And Red River, for example, is full of family activities. Cloudcroft is small and much more limited for things to do

I would drive a half day further to Estes Park

But I love Rocky Mountain NP, so I'm biased

Thanks for the insight everyone! We're reassessing to see if we can make northern NM work. With it adding a few more hours, we may look at overnighting somewhere to avoid driving through hopefully snowy mountain areas at night.

We're strongly considering the Red River area, but that's a hell of a drive to make for only a few days of being there.

We did a similar trip a few years back to angelfire just before Christmas and were very disappointed. The only snow was made by the resorts, but that was an exceptionally dry year. Northern NM tends to have a shorter ski season than CO, butnit is definitely more affordable. Check sipapu for something very basic but budget friendly.

civilized05 said:

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Thanks for the insight everyone! We're reassessing to see if we can make northern NM work. With it adding a few more hours, we may look at overnighting somewhere to avoid driving through hopefully snowy mountain areas at night.

We're strongly considering the Red River area, but that's a hell of a drive to make for only a few days of being there.

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Google Maps says it's only a couple of hours further to Red River than Cloudcroft. On a trip that long, that's not much difference for a lot better experience.

I appreciate that you have all-terrain tires, and if the roads are dry/plowed, you are probably ok. However, if you catch a pretty good winter event, that would not be sufficient. I would buy some chains and stick them in. Keep the receipt, return if you don't use them, but if the roads do get nasty (always an option), you are going to need the help.