We are in Raton, NM - right outside the Raton Pass , you know the pass on the Santa Fe Trail that the wagons had to use to cross into NM from Colorado. Today's I-25 pass is not in the location of the original, it is somewhat east. We did see the real one though ? you know us, we need to have authenticity in all of our history (ha!). It is just a little NW of the actual downtown. We drove up to Goat Hill, the highest point in Raton city and then looked up and said- yeah - there it is. It was up past Goat Hill, much higher, but the road was unpaved, gravel, very steep and narrow & included several switchbacks - maybe next time. I must say though, I would hate to have been in a wagon using that pass at any time - riding or walking.
Interestingly enough, there were 2 Santa Fe trail routes. The trail divided in SW Kansas and the two trails were the Mountain Santa Fe Trail, arcing through Colorado and entering NM over the steep Raton Pass, and the Cimarron Santa Fe Trail that edged through SE Colorado & NW Texas and entered NM around Clayton (between Raton & Amarillo, TX). . The mountain trail was supposed to have been more arduous and longer but safer, at least until travelers hit the steep Raton Pass and New Mexico. In 1865 a toll road was built to make the Raton Pass crossing easier. The Cimarron route cuts across US 87 today and apparently wagon ruts are still visible on much of its route. It is amazing how being out here and learning more of the actual history, seeing the trails and the towns now makes all those Westerns I grew up watching so much more meaningful.
We are staying at Sugarite (pronounced sugar-eet) Canyon State Park. Sugarite was a coal camp in 1910 and supplied heating coal to homes as far away as Kansas & Oklahoma. Its main building, the post office, is now the Visitors Center here at the park.
The only real challenge we have had with the motorhome occurred here though. We thought we had a propane leak. We could smell gas the after we arrived the first night and just knew we had broken something lose but could not determine what it was. It seemed to center around the refrigerator. It had been running on propane all day but automatically witched to electric when we plugged in to shore power. Bruce looked everywhere but couldn't find anything. The smell got worse as the night got later and what made it worse was that the LP alarm on the floor was green but never went off. We were very worried. The next day Bruce searched all the bins and took the 2 small propane tanks out he used for the grill and noticed one seemed very light and smelled quite a bit of leaking gas. He still thought that we had a problem elsewhere, since the bin itself seemed to smell of gas, but after testing all of the visible joints, the pop-off cap, etc. and talking with the mechanics we found who doubted the motorhome tank was at fault, he determined that all of it was caused by the small tank?s valve leaking into the closed compartment. That compartment is sealed and carpeted and also vents to the refrigerator base and the gas was escaping upward through that avenue. We can only assume there were not enough particles of gas per whatever to set the alarm off on the floor and we were getting mostly the smell, made worse by the drop in pressure the first night when it rained and the less dense air at this altitude. We had the tank valve fixed today and all seems well now - no smells last night (tank stayed outside rather than in the bin and the bin was aired out and squirted with odo-ban) and nothing since. Whew- We are very glad that the issue was not a busted tank some place in the back of the underside of The Beast. We expect we will have some problems on this trip but we really didn't want to start off with a major repair.
Yesterday, after airing out the bin and trying to find an RV repair place, we drove to Capulin (pronounced cah-poo-LEEN) Volcano National Monument.
The Raton-Clayton volcanic field covers 8000 square miles and stretches from Trinidad, CO to Clayton, NM and has been active during the last 9 million years, but is currently not classified as active since there had been no activity for the last 30,000 - 40,000 years. The eruption of Capulin about 60,000 years ago is one of the more recent activities. Because it is not considered active does not mean that there will be no more eruptions from this field in the future, but scientists don?t think it will happen within a human time span. This collection of volcanoes is the eastern most Cenozoic volcanic field in the US. Volcanic fields are clusters of volcanoes that al tap a common magma source. Driving around this area you can see can see hills, peaks and other formations all around the area that are part of this volcanic field, including the largest single mountain in the US, Sierra Grande. It is an extinct volcano rising 2200 feet above the surrounding plain 10 miles SE of Capulin.
We returned to Sugarite via NM 72 over Johnson Mesa. This drive took about twice the time but was worth every minute. The mesa is 8609 ft in the air and is beautiful, although we did hit a short in duration hail storm. Once we descended a bit the hail turned slushy so there was no damage to the car. You reach the mesa it by climbing through Folsom and the surrounding mountains that run along the NM/Colorado border (remember- there is a reason the wagon trains had to cross at Raton). The climb up is gentle but the road down is steep. Along the drive you can catch views of Colorado to the north- but well below the 8000 foot mesa cliffs. As far as I could tell from the NM side- there would have been no other way to get to the top for wagons, although I do know there is now another road that will take us to Colorado not to far west of the canyon. We would have to go back across the mesa and further west. I tried to get Bruce to take me to Trinidad today (Saturday) via that route, but he said we were taking the easy road over the pass - 20 minutes versus 1-2 hours was his reasoning I guess. We will have to save that road for a different trip.
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