Ruidoso, New Mexico: "in Ruidoso, the landscape asked for peace, and we complied."

Sunset, Nov, 2003 by Lawrence Cheek

It's tougher to visit the creek now, inevitably--the forest is thick with cabins, and there are occasional adamant No TRESPASSING signs. But there remains an informal trail along the south bank of the Rio Ruidoso, and I am drawn there again and again, just to ramble alongside a narrow scribble of water that would be a throwaway creek in the Pacific Northwest, where I live now. But they call it a "river" here in Ruidoso, and so will I.

I was born, raised, and educated a few hours' drive from here, in a Texas city to which the word "godforsaken" stuck like a prefix. But once a year, our family went to Ruidoso for a weekend. Its ponderosa forests provided my introduction to the color green, its mountains my chance to investigate snow, and, most profoundly, the river my realization that running water occurred in the natural world.

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Our family comprised three individuals of iron will, and mine was magnetically aligned in the opposite direction of my parents. At home, we fought. But in Ruidoso, the landscape asked for peace, and we complied. I remember only happy and healing times in Ruidoso: scrambling up mountains, sitting together as a family in front of a fireplace in the cabin we always rented from Whispering Pine Cabins.

Ruidoso exists, in fact, because of us--and a few thousand other families like us: Texans who would spend their parched summers pining for a high-elevation retreat within a long weekend's reach. The real surge of development came during the depression. Wealthy El Pasoans who had been accustomed to summers in California scaled back and built cabins in Ruidoso. Talk about a steal: In a promotion, the El Paso Herald offered building lots for $59.50 with a six-month subscription.

I had stayed away for 40 years. I expected change, and there is: fast food, casinos, and a French restaurant offering rack of lamp. Galleries and boutiques now crowd the midtown shopping district, and on a plateau near town is the stunning Spencer Theater, designed by star architect Antoine Predock. It looks like the offspring of a pyramid and a Klingon shuttle. The village population is now 8,500, and its issues today are the same ones that every too-fetching-for-its-own-good small town in the Southwest now faces: scarce water and the effort to preserve its charm under the pressure of development.

Still, the local spirit perseveres. Ruidoso remains the chainsaw bear-sculpture capital of the world. And the Rio Ruidoso remains the town's greatest asset, and the residents know it. Every May, they stage a community-wide river cleanup, with a volunteer army combing for trash--much of which, Mayor Leon Eggleston tells me, is left by careless bears dragging their garbage-can loot back to the forest.

In my two days here. I walk as much of the river as I can, trying to reclaim the joy of discovery I felt in the same places decades ago. Back then, I didn't ponder the river as a metaphor for human existence or worry about a burgeoning population fencing it off or sucking it dry. I saw it as a miracle--clear, clean, cold mountain water that would nourish life forever.

Nothing in nature seems so unambiguous anymore, and it's easy to let grown-up cynicism grind away at the magic. But Rio Ruidoso is still so lovely that it extracts a silent promise from a man now familiar with vastly more ambitious rivers: I'll be back.

LARRY'S RUIDOSO

For the classic Ruidoso experience, stay in a cabin resort in the Upper Canyon, such as Whispering Pine Cabins (from $79; www.wpcr.com or 866/766-3445). Don't miss the Hubbard Museum of the American West ($6; 841 U.S. 70 W.; 505/378-4142). And those carved bears are visible almost all over town.

To see the "new" here, visit the Spencer Theater for the Performing Arts (on State 220, Alto; www.spencertheater.com or 888/818-7872). Or enjoy French food at Le Bistro (closed Sun-Mon; 2800 Sudderth Dr.; 505/257-0132).

WHERE: Ruidoso is about 190 miles south of Albu-querque. Ruidoso Valley Chamber of Commerce, www.ruidoso.net or (877) 784-3676