But at the top, it isn’t long before the wind and lower temperatures start to have an effect. It’s one thing to be told you may experience a 20-degree drop in temperature on reaching the summit, but it’s another to experience it. We are not among the wise and only had jackets on hand by accident. It’s far too hot for heavy clothing, but most people are wearing warm jackets and the truly wise are wearing long pants. Locomotives stand chuffing on the track awaiting their next vertical trek. There’s a café, gift shop and the Cog museum.
On this sunny and hot summer’s day, earlier, at the bottom of Mount Washington, we waited at Marshfield Station, the Cog’s base. Those Victorians certainly had a can-do attitude. Indeed, the local social register, appropriately called “Among the Clouds,” was printed on top of the mountain and listed who was staying in the Whites. They also had a printing press up there.” “Believe it or not,” she continued, “they even had cows that pastured on the summit in the warmer seasons. Then they built a second one that was torn down, eventually, to build the current state summit building. It was a 90-room hotel and quite elegant for the time, especially (for a hotel) at the top of a mountain. The first one burned, it was called the Summit House. “The Tip Top was a hiker’s hostel,” said Rebecca Metcalf, the Cog’s marketing director. The only remaining historic building is the Tip Top House, built in 1853 from stone blasted from the mountain. Well, it’s almost raw - we traveled up on a train, after all, and the top of Mount Washington includes the weather observatory and its museum, and a visitor center - essential for weary hikers - with a post office, where you can mail a letter postmarked from Mount Washington. Just stop taking photos for one minute and be still and take it in: This unspoiled raw nature is awe-inspiring.
Not everyday, overused and hyped-up awesome, but truly awesome. Man-made feat aside, both going up and down, and at the very top, the views are awesome. It’s just a matter of inclination, literally, as we head up Mount Washington, tipped up at a ridiculous angle, riding the Mount Washington Cog Railway.įondly known as the Cog, this rack-and-pinion railway has been carrying carriage loads of tourists up the western slope of the tallest peak in the Northeast since 1869, making this the world's first and oldest mountain-climbing cog railway. We’re deep in Coos County, New Hampshire, in the White Mountain National Forest and about to enter Mount Washington State Park. This could just be among the most beautiful, breathtaking three miles and three hours of your life.
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