Alternate route to Raton Pass?

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.