This lookout, a 30 foot high steel tower with a wooden cab 14 feet square, is an Aermotor MI-25 type. This type of lookout is unusual and rare in the Southwestern Region, with only one other known, located on the Gila National Forest. Ruidoso Lookout was erected in 1940 and is on the Smoky Bear Ranger District. Access to the tower site is by foot traffic only with access to the tower itself being closed to the public.