Raton Pass CO - 2018

It is now April 18th, and we are hoping the snow and cold is gone for the most part in Colorado.  Off to get our furniture and take it to Justin's (our son in South Dakota).  We packed up the RV and headed to “Raton Pass Camp & Cafe” at the top of Raton Pass.  We didn’t want to make long drives if it’s not necessary and this was a good stopping spot.  We knew it was going to be cold here but we heard the views were great.  We planned on staying here for two nights. 

You might ask yourself, why did they stay for two nights and not just one?  There are several reasons for that.  One of the biggest ones is it takes time to set up camp and tear down camp so a little break in between is nice.  One of the other reasons is we like to explore the areas we stop at.  That is why we decided to live in an RV to begin with.  Other reasons could be laundry might need to be done or tanks need to be emptied or filled depending on where we were or are heading.  Not the reason in this case though.

When we got there, a sign on the door said to press the doorbell.  Soon after a voice came over a speaker.  I was expecting a person, but we found out she wasn’t there.  She was in Denver.  Who knew.  The spot we wanted (she told us spot 11 had the best views) was in the upper section of the park and the gate was still closed.  (We were the first RV’ers that camped in the upper section this year).  She gave us the code to the lock and we headed up to our spot.  Boy it was windy up there, but that didn’t bother us after our stay at “The Ranch” outside of Carlsbad.  Once we got the RV in it’s spot and leveled, a care taker of the park showed up and worked on getting the power and water turned on.  The views were really nice up there, as long as you looked at them from inside the RV. 

The Next day we headed to a volcano.  Not like the one in Hawaii, this one is dead I guess.  Capulin Volcano National Monument was about 30 miles away from us so the drive wasn’t bad.  We drove to the top of the volcano and from there you can see a lot of states but I couldn’t see any state lines like there is on the GPS.  What’s up with that?   Anyway, there were two trails, one going down into the volcano, and one going around the rim of the volcano.  We did the one going into the volcano first, just to get out of the wind, then we did the rim trail.  At one point, the wind came up and blew me off the trail…not too far though because a few more steps and Terry would have to get the truck and go get me at the bottom of the volcano.  It was a cool little park.  Here are the pictures we took while there.

After all the excitement at the volcano, we headed to Raton town to fill up the truck and get some ice cream from Dairy Queen.  We walked into the joint and was standing waiting to be helped, then after a few minutes, the lady at the counter turned around and said “My doors are unlocked?”  “oh, we are closed.  Only the drive-through is open.”  I said to myself; “Fine.  I will go home and get ice cream.” And we left.  What we did noticed was several people eating inside.  I guess she didn’t want to make money.  And it wasn’t late or anything.  It was like 2:00 pm on a Thursday.  Terry also found a quilt shop while we were in town, so we had to visit it also.

That’s all for Raton, NM.  Now it’s time to head to Monument, CO.  The review for the campground can be seen here, or on the Camping Reviews page (link on the right).