Saturday, November 13, 2010

Mount Washington – New Hampshire

Although we are posting this blog entry the second week of November, we were actually in New Hampshire the first week of September.

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The sign says it all: 231 MILES PER HOUR

As we well know non-retired RVers and campers really look forward to the three big three-day weekends of Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day. As we used to do, many make their plans and reservations months in advance. These weekends are problematic for fulltime RVers, because we never know were we will be months in advance to make reservations. That coupled with the increase in traffic and crowds; most fulltime RV we know are just happy to find a place to sit out the holiday weekend. We found an older, smaller campground with at least twice as many tent sites as RV sites. Near the small New Hampshire town of Gorham in the White Mountains.

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One of the  many hiking trails at the campground.

This particular campground had miles of  loop trails and roads for the three of us to hike on everyday and the tress were beginning to turn into there fall colors.

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Sun beaming through colorful leaves

Probably the most famous spot in the White Mountains and perhaps all of New Hampshire is Mount Washington. To quote Wikipedia “Mount Washington is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at 6,288 ft (1,917 m). It is famous for its dangerously erratic weather and long held the record for the highest wind gust directly measured at the Earth's surface, 231 mph, on the afternoon of April 12, 1934.” Mount Washington has a long history of  tourist visitation since the Crawford Path, the oldest mountain hiking trail in the United States, was laid out in 1819 as a bridle path. Mount Washington was developed into one of the first tourist destinations in the nation, with construction of more bridle paths and two hotels in 1852 and 1853.”

Tip-Top House was built in 1853

Tip-Top House was built in 1853

In 1861 a coach road was added and in 1869 the Mount Washington Cog Railway added. Both of these are still in operation, but now the coach Road is known as the Mount Washington Auto Road. However, the Mount Washington Auto Road isn’t much wider than it was when  first built and they have many restrictions on the size of vehicles on the Auto Road. Our truck is too long, too wide and too heavy to  use the road. We took their Guided Van Tour and once we got on the mountain and saw how narrow the road was I was VERY GLAD we did!

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That is the beginning of the barely 2 lane road up the mountain.

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It was so clear we could see forever looking north.

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Almost to the tippity top!

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Looking down to the place we started at!

It was in the 70s when we left the valley at the start of the tour. When we arrived at the summit the was blowing at 37 mph, the temperature was 34 F and the Wind Chill was 16 F! Yet we saw a few people getting out of the vans and cars wearing flip flops and shorts!! What were they thinking!

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Looking north with the railroad in the foreground

Looking north with the railroad in the foreground

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Looking west in the howling wind

Down the fall colored bracken mountain it goes

Down the fall colored bracken mountain it goes

The original Stanley Steamer that F.O. Stanley and Wife used to drive to the top on August 31, 1899

The original Stanley Steamer that F.O. Stanley and his  Wife used to drive to the top on August 31, 1899

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This photo on the wall of the museum shows why you probably don’t want to visit in the winter.

Mount Washington slideshow

11 comments:

  1. Very informative, and great pictures.
    Thank you for sharing.
    I looked through your TX travels, and I didn't see any mention of the MacDonald Observatory near the Davis Mountains in TX.
    Did I miss it, or are you saving that for another visit?
    Happy Trails, Penny, TX

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  2. WOW!!! I've been in major hurricanes and I sure don't like wind, but 231 miles per hour is unreal!! I don't what to be any where near that!!

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  3. Penny, We thought briefly about visiting MacDonald Observatory when we were in Fort Stockton but, decided it would have to wait for another time. The only part of our Texas visit that we haven't written about yet was our first 10 days in Fredericksburg. We loved the place and have a great number of pictures of the places we visited around there. However, we got so wrapped up in buying and moving into the new trailer that we never got that blog entry done. Then the blog got so far behind I decided that I will just have to do the Fredericksburg writeup out of sequence when we have time.

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  4. Mt Washington was indeed a terrific place to visit. Sure was glad I had a jacket with me at the time! BURRRRRR. And......I will NEVER drive on that road again!!!!!!!!

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  5. Bryan and I thoroughly enjoyed today's post. That area is on our to do list as of April 2011...
    HA
    Hugs HiC

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  6. Neat adventure...someplace else I want to visit!!! Thanks for taking us to all these neat places!
    Hugs and belly rubs to Raider!

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  7. I enjoy reading about your travels. Thank you.

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  8. Enjoy viewing you photography...beautiful! Wanted to ask you what program you use to have you text saying "photo by (your name"?

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  9. Hello there Kathy and Grant...
    What a beautiful world you live in. It is so, so refreshing to see such pristine, beautifully kept countryside! You must be having the time of your life on all your fabulous journeys!
    Your photos are really beautiful and my hubby and I spent some time enjoying them...thank you!
    What an amazing world we live in.
    By the way - since you guys are birders: Did you know that the number of species of birds in our Kruger National Park, here in South Africa, exceeds that of the entire Australian continent. The Kruger Park is about the size of Switzerland and hosts some of the most beautiful species of birds and wild life (including the "Big 5")
    Thank you for your beautiful blog.
    Sending lotsaluv
    MAXMOM IN SA

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  10. Wow, beautiful pictures, Kathy! And what a view!

    Liz

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