Better get a move on if you want to experience a special part of New Mexico before everybody else discovers it. Even though the more famous Taos, Santa Fe and Albuquerque are fine vacation spots, Ruidoso in the southern part of the state is special, too.

Look any direction you like and there's Sierra Blanca with its snowy peak reaching 12,003 feet! Tiny Ruidoso, population 8,000, claims this towering mountain as its own, sort of a benevolent grandparent keeping a kindly eye on you. The trip to its base at 9,000 feet is spectacular, on a twisty-turny road offering big new views around every hairpin curve.

Any walk around the village offers you a clear look at the snow-capped peak and the ski slopes every day. That's a definite treat for those of us living where the lands are flat.

I was there in May so no-one was skiing, but families and friends were happily hiking the trails of the one million acre Lincoln National Forest, mountain biking, horseback riding, golfing or fishing for rainbow trout in local streams and lakes.

Never heard of Ruidoso? Me either, but seems like we could have because the birth and burial place of Smokey Bear is right next door in the town of Capitan. Fighting forest fires matters a lot to people in this part of the world.

The population swells to 35,000 in the summer, an indicator of lots of fun things to do.

Instead of hiking, I rode a stagecoach. A real one. After all, this is Billy the Kid country. A good way to see this land is to make a loop along the 84-mile national scenic byway named for the legendary outlaw whose daring escape from jail here in 1878 led to great speculation as to what happened to him next -- killed at nearby Fort Stanton or moved to England.

Billy the Kid's horse probably ran faster than the team of four pulling my stagecoach, but I bet we bounced just as much as those passengers 150 years ago hitching a ride with the mail.

A hefty $5 was the price to send a letter, and the driver was paid only if he got the mail from St. Louis to San Francisco in 23 days. The drill included changing horses every 20 miles and traveling 120 miles each day.

My ride on this replica wooden Western stagecoach was only five miles and we kept the same horses but changed seats -- inside the coach, on the top and then right behind owner/driver Ed Heiman and 16-year-old home-schooled son Cole, with your knees pressing in his back and holding on tight to keep from pitching off.

Your teeth rattle anywhere you sit, but this perch offers fabulous views of Sierra Blanca and the sweeping vistas of the 10,000-foot Capitan Mountain range. You know you are on a spur of the original old Santa Fe Trail. No manufactured amusement park pretending here -- this Lincoln County Overland Stage Company ride is what national tourism research shows travelers want: the authentic experience. Calmer amusements are also possible when you follow the Billy the Kid national scenic highway and make Ruidoso (Roo Eee Do So) your home base.

Like shopping? Shops lining both sides of downtown in this village carry interesting original art, western-motif furnishings, funky and traditional clothing, wonderful jewelry, good eateries -- everything you want for a fun day of browsing, but maybe even more significant, Ruidoso's shopkeepers are so pleasant.

Every single clerk or owner seemed like a happy person, glad to work and live in this place. Do you suppose that's true all through the Rockies, or unique to this southern-most part of the mountains? Pleasant people are definitely a Ruidoso distinctive.

The Hubbard Museum of the American West is here and wandering among the Conestoga wagons, family buggies, Wells Fargo mail wagons and stagecoaches, you sense the strength and skills of American pioneers.