Alternate route to Raton Pass?

bigblueok wrote:

kennethwooster wrote:
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. I avoid Dalhart Tx due to their low under pass.

The Dalhart TX RV Park we will be staying at said they were unaware of any problems of the low underpass. Could you elaborate on this ?

We make that trip annually to/from Colorado. I think the sign on the underpass actually says 13'-7". There are a lot of high profile 5ers (including us) that go under all the time. Unless you are extra high for some reason you will have no problem.
If you are really concerned about it though, there is a bypass just a block or so west of it where the underpass is marked 14'-1".

The road over Raton is to Interstate Standards. Dont bother worrying about it. Drive it a couple of times for parctice and then you will be ready for Wolf Creek and then Monarch.

This Texas Low Clearance Underpass link has the one on 87 at Dalhart at being 13-10.

Don't think you have anything to worry about - - but that campground could have been a bit more helpful if they had told you about that underpass and it being OK instead of just telling you they didn't know of any low underpass. In other words " Yes there is an underpass but it is not low."

kennethwooster wrote:
We stay on South Fork for the summer. I use to go to Colorado Springs so yes ive traveled through part of Kansas just for a change. It was slow with a trailer. We live in Texas about 45 miles south of Liberal Kansas. We usually go north and catch Ok. 3 and stay on it to Clayton. Not much traffic and Ok. Has fixed some of the rough roads. Raton pass is no problem. Just control speed going down.the 6.7 makes the braking eady. I avoid Dalhart Tx due to their low under pass.

The Dalhart TX RV Park we will be staying at said they were unaware of any problems of the low underpass. Could you elaborate on this ?

We stay on South Fork for the summer. I use to go to Colorado Springs so yes ive traveled through part of Kansas just for a change. It was slow with a trailer. We live in Texas about 45 miles south of Liberal Kansas. We usually go north and catch Ok. 3 and stay on it to Clayton. Not much traffic and Ok. Has fixed some of the rough roads. Raton pass is no problem. Just control speed going down.the 6.7 makes the braking eady. I avoid Dalhart Tx due to their low under pass.

Have done it many times both ways. It is an interstate so no worry about hairpin curves or really steep grades. Lock into a lower gear going downhill and you will be fine.

bigblueok wrote:
Is there a way to avoid Raton Pass heading towards Colorado Springs? I am towing a larger fifth wheel and am concerned about the mt passes.

The last time I crossed Raton it was no problem at all. We were in a group....my 29' class C, a 40' DP, a 27' fiver. No problems for anyone. Enjoy your trip and scenery.

But Monarch Pass is quite a bit west of Colorado Springs, not on the way back to toward Oklahoma.

On a map showing relief you'll see that the land east of I25 from Trinidad to Pueblo to CS is flat. Raton Pass is in a spur of mountains that projects east along the state border. That roughness is reduced to a few isolated mesas in the OK panhandle. US385 is Oklahoma flat.

Monarch Pass on US-50 is a lot higher, but is not a difficult climb and descent. You simply manage your speed at a lower speed than you would on the Interstate. I found that 40-50 MPH going down was a reasonable speed for the curves and the traffic, and fit the engine braking to the load for my weight and gearing.

The difficult part of dealing with Monarch is the temptation to let your speed build higher on the straight sections, when you know there are more curves to come before you finish the descent.

We are going towards Col. Springs and then I wanted to come back on hwy 50, any issues there with the trailer on my back???