Upon leaving Vermont the only thing stopping us from reaching our goal was the state of New Hampshire. A relatively short drive across the border took us into New Hampshire and our riverside site just outside the small town of Littleton.
New Hampshire is home to the White Mountains, including the highest peak in the Northeastern United States, 6,288 ft. Mt. Washington. Mt. Washington is well know for it’s weather extremes…some claim it has the worst weather in the world.
There are several ways to summit Mt. Washington. Mountaineering purists may want to hike to the top, a 4-5 mile journey that will take the most experienced hikers about that many hours of walking…each way. The Cog Railway offers a 3-mile ride up and down the mountain although we found the tickets to be as steep as the climb. Our choice was to drive the Mt. Washington Auto Road at a cost of $53.00, roughly 25% of the cost of two tickets for the Cog Railway.
It was a hair-raising drive on a sometimes narrow road with steep drop-offs. But we made it and I’m pretty sure all the other drivers did too. We had an extremely nice day; we were told we’d enjoy a 360° view with a visibility of 100 miles. We posed for our photo, enjoyed the view, bought lunch – a chili dog for Reg and clam chowder for me and chatted with a young man hiking the Appalachian Trail. By then it was starting to get cold and it was time to head back down the mountain.
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