Mount Washington

Bob and I have been planning for weeks to drive up Mount Washington’s Auto Road, a half hour drive to the top of the northeast’s tallest mountain. We allowed a week in the area to be certain we’d have a nice day and it was a good thing we did because it has been overcast or rainy much of this week. On Monday morning, however, we took advantage of the partly cloudy forecast and booked a tour.

Why did we go for a tour rather than drive ourselves? Well, Bob loves to tell the story of him driving through Glacier National Park on the Going to the Sun Road years ago. The road was narrow with lots of twists and turns, and if you were to run off the road you’d fall about a mile to the bottom before your bodies became grizzly food. So I sat looking out the window like this, “ Ooh, that’s the most amazing view DON’T LOOK! KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD!” And he didn’t see very much.

Ok, we did take a bus tour later but the point is that on these drives the driver has to miss a lot.

The tour up Mount Washington was only a few dollars extra and was well worth it. We learned about the history of the area, the plant and animal life, and about the road itself. We both agreed that it was money well spent.

Temperatures were in the mid 50s with winds gusting to 20 mph. The warmest recorded temperature on top of Mount Washington was 72 degrees, and the strongest wind ever recorded on the planet (at the time) was here at 231 mph on April 12,1934. That record has since been broken in Australia where a gust of 253 mph was recorded in 1996.

The view was amazing

The famous Cog Railway still brings visitors up the mountain. The vegetation at this altitude is that of an arctic tundra.

The early buildings, like this one, have heavy chains that are run across the roof in several places and keep the building from blowing off the mountain in high winds.

There is also a small museum at the summit that educated visitors on Mount Washington history. And since this was the beginning/end point of the Appalachian Trail, there were lots of odorous hikers there. You could feel their excitement.

It was a nice day all around.