Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Mt. Washington Adventure

We flew to Boston, and headed up to Mt. Washington in New Hampshire to see the foliage colors and to ride the cog-wheel railroad up the tallest mountain in New England, at 6288 ft.

Taking the subway to our rental car

Steaming tea pot over the door to Starbucks

love the curved buildings!

Love the tall edifices

Street scene from the parking garage

Leaving Boston over the Zakim Bridge

Cool sled I wanted Grant to see, which was at the Common Man Inn in Plymouth, NH

Approaching Franconia, where the Old Man used to be

Almost there

We were invited to come inside the engine of this little steam train and they let me pull the cord to blow the train whistle.  As in the Polar Express, I, too, always wanted to do that.

The Waumbek in all its glory.  We loved it.

the view from the driver's seat

the coal car

Jeffery tries it, too.


The Lodge, with Mt. Washington in the background

the cog wheel that will pull us up and hold us on the way down the tracks

pretty old train display

The base of the hill is 2700 ft.

The entire route is on a low trestle, but some places the trestle is higher off the ground

One of the three switches

our chariot

On the way up the hill the seat backs go to the left of the seat.  On the way down, they swivel over to the other side of the seat.

Yoda likes the view

I loved these scraggy Krumholz balsam trees, and on Mt. Washington this is called alpine terrain.




We go around this water tank to the right, and then wait for the trains coming down the hill

Here comes one of the downhill trains
Far ahead is one of the taller trestles, and, as you can see we'll be hitting the clouds soon

up into the fog

Geologic Survey Marker on Mt. Washington


Jeffery, Yoda, and me after we climbed Mt. Washington (the last 20 ft. anyway).  Brrr!

Our train awaits, and the engine will go down ahead of the passenger car, so Jeffery and I sat at the back to look out the rear window


Hey!  There's a moose!
This device measured the fastest wind-speed ever recorded - 231 mph on April 12, 1934

We dined at the Common Man Inn in Plymouth, and it was really good and very enjoyable.

1 comment: