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.
At its peak over 1000 people lived in this canyon and the camp included a 2 story school house, a company store, a doctor's office and a club house that was used by the miners and their families for social activities. The camp was shut down in 1941 as butane became the eating fuel of choice. The major geological feature in this canyon is an extended cliff of basaltic rock. 12 million years ago broad sheets of molten lava erupted from a nearby volcano forming layers of basalt rock 10 to 100 feet thick. Apparently these cliffs are appreciated by technical rock climbers - we just appreciate them for their grandeur. There is a small (Lake Alice) near the campground and further up the canyon a much larger 120 acre lake (Lake Maloya). It's north shoreline is part of one of the Colorado Wilderness areas. Elevation in the park is from 6900ft to 8300ft. The Limestone campground, where we are staying is probably at about 7200ft. It is on the side of the hill at the bottom of the canyon. There is a primitive campground higher in elevation and further up the canyon road, Soda Pocket- and includes several group sites, a horse corral site and multiple tent and trailer sites. The road to the campground is not paved but it wanders through some wonderful scenery for several miles. Nights have been very cool, low 40s and the day time temperatures have remained in the 70s at the campground and probably the mid 80s in town. We could not have picked a better time to be here. 
We lucked out when we arrived and the 2nd camp host spot was empty so we changed to that area, giving us a clear view of the campground and the resulting activities- which can be viewed through the camper's "big screen" (the very large front windows). Since we have added the sun shades to the windows- you can not see into the camper during the day when walking or driving by, so the big screen provides quite an in obtrusive viewing area, although when things get really good- we have to go out and observe. Today it took one poor man at least 45 minutes and 35 different in and out tries to get his camper into the spot. I watched from inside, Bruce couldn't stand it and had to view the whole process from a better area so he and the camp host high around across from the site and watched. Ah - the things that entertain us. 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.
We have driven by the road to the volcano for years, every time we have come out of Amarillo on US 64/87 on our way to CO over Raton. Each time we have said, wish we had time to stop, so this time we intentionally put it on our schedule. So we drove out from Raton SW on US 64/87 about 30 miles until we reached the road to the volcano. Along the way we saw small herds of what I think were antelope just standing around watching us pass. The volcano is conical in form and rises 1300 feet above the plain. It is now covered in vegetation and straddles 2 habitats, the grasslands of the plains and the forests of the mountains. It is named after the Spanish word for the chokeberry. Capulin is an extinct volcano and is an excellent example of a cinder cone which typically have only one period of activity. It erupted 56,000 - 62,000 years ago and is part of the Raton - Clayton volcanic field. When it erupted it produced two different products, cinders and lava. The focused eruption sent cinders into the air and they piled up around the vent and produced the Capulin cone. During the eruption process there were 4 different lava flows that ended up covering 15.7 square miles. The conical shape of the volcano was preserved because the first lava flow came early in the eruption from the base of the cinder cone facing east but the remaining 3 were from several vents on the west side of the cone now called the boca or mouth. That helped to preserve Capulin?s symmetry. There are 5 trails in the park, 2 that can be accessed from the top of the volcano. We drove to the top and viewed all of the surrounding vistas from the large parking area since we could not take Hazel on any of the trails and it was too hot to leave her in the car. Also , 8000+ ft high gets to be a bit of a breathing problem for both of us, even on the paved 1 mile Rim Trail that "skirts the rim in a series of moderate to steep ascents (340 ft elevation changes) to the peak's highest point at 8,182ft with a steep descent to the parking lot" - right. There is also a steep Crater Vent trail (we did not take it either) that descends 105 ft to the crater vent but a young couple from Nebraska climbing back up while we were there said you can see the same rocks from the parking area that you see from the bottom- and that not taking the trail was the better choice. They were pretty winded themselves, as Nebraska is not at 8000ft either. The trip is worth it though and the drive up twists around the volcano for several miles, with wonderful views and no guard rails. 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.
