Colorado 2003

Day 1 - Amarillo to Raton Pass

	The Sangre de Cristos from the air. We flew from Tampa to Albuquerque, across the Sangre de Cristos. Then we changed planes and headed back to Amarillo, Texas. There we rented a 4-wheel drive Durango for the week.
	Amarillo is a pleasant city which we have visited before. We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant we like and shopped for some things we didn't want to fly in from Florida, like picnic supplies and a couple of chairs.
	At sunrise we were on the road. This part of Texas is flat farmland with cotton fields lining the road.
	Even though the state line between New Mexico and Texas is only a survey line, as you move from Texas to New Mexico, the scenery changes. Fields of cotton and corn give way to rocky cattle pastures with sparse grass and volcanic outcroppings.
North of Raton, NM on I-25 is Raton Pass. We stopped at the overlook to see the mountains in the distance.
Michael at Raton Pass	Once we checked in at the motel, we headed out to our property. Our neighbors at Horny Toad Acres greeted us warmly and took us around their ranch. They have a fence between their property and ours, and very kindly allowed us to drive onto their property and park by the fence while we were visiting. The pictures below are from their land and I'm sitting in the back of their tailgate.