i'm thankful that old road's a friend of mine.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Raton Pass
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Looking into Colorado from Raton Pass
Nearest city:	Trinidad, CO, Raton, NM

Raton Pass
Elevation	7,834 ft (2,388 m)
Traversed by	Interstate 25, US-85, US-87, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
Location
Coordinates	36°59′28″N 104°29′12″W / 36.9911344°N 104.4866544°W / 36.9911344; -104.4866544Coordinates: 36°59′28″N 104°29′12″W / 36.9911344°N 104.4866544°W / 36.9911344

Raton Pass (7834 feet or 2388 meters elevation) is a mountain pass on the Santa Fe Trail along the Colorado-New Mexico border in the United States. Raton Pass is a federally designated National Historic Landmark. Ratón is Spanish for "mouse."
The pass is located on the eastern side of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains between Trinidad, Colorado and Raton, New Mexico, approximately 100 miles (160 km) northeast of Santa Fe. The pass crosses the line of volcanic mesas that extends east from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains along the state line, and furnishes the most direct land route between the valley of the Arkansas River to the north and the upper valley of the Canadian River, leading to Santa Fe, to the south.