After conquering the vast expanses that are the Texas panhandle and the Northeast corner of New Mexico, we finally made it to the Rocky Mountains! Rounding the corner into Raton, NM to discover a breathtaking horizon of towering blue mountains nearly moved us to tears after an 83 mile day of sparsely populated desert from Clayton, NM.
Exhausted but exhilarated, we pulled into Raton with an air of equal parts anxiety and excitement for the mountains that lay ahead. Channeling the philosophy to "do the things that scare you," we had decided to cut north through Colorado for a bit more scenic - if not more mountainous - route that involved three mountain passes rather than just one.
The next morning, we set out to conquer Raton Pass, discovering that the things we had heard about the longer, more gradual nature of the roads through the Rockies were indeed true. We reached the summit and were rewarded with another beautiful view and a great introduction to the state of Colorado.
During our first few days in Colorado, we noticed two major differences from the places we had gone through so far. The first was the plethora of other travelers and tourists with whom we interacted, and the second was the relatively low level of surprise with which we were met compared to the reactions we had gotten from people earlier in the trip. The level of curiosity in Colorado seemed to be lower because bike touring is more commonplace here, but to our delight the level of encouragement remained high.