Northeast Trip - Day 13 (Sunday, June 18, 2000)
- Pinkham Notch, Mount Washington and Dixville Notch -
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| Visitors disembark from the cog railyway at the summit. (Mount Washington State Park, New Hampshire) |
My mom wanted to relax in the condo, so just my brother and I left Bartlett and arrived in Pinkham Notch. Our first stop took us on a short hike to Glen Ellis Falls, a lovely sight to start the day. Next we arrived at a visitor center run by the Appalachian Mountain Club, where I checked the forecast for Mount Washington and looked at some of the books about the area. While there, we took the trail to the Crystal Cascades. The trail eventually leads to the top of Mount Washington.
We got back to our car for one of the easy ways to the top of the mountain - driving up the toll road. After paying at the toll booth we got an information packet, including a compact disc, a certificate attesting to our auto climb, and a bumper sticker reading "This car climbed Mt. Washington!" Listening to the informative CD, we slowly made our way up to the summit at 6288 feet, the highest point in the Northeast.
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| The weather observatory on the summit. (Mount Washington State Park, New Hampshire) |
At the top, we had great weather, considering the mountain top's reputation for being cloudy more than half the time and having hurricane force winds more than a quarter of the time. We enjoyed the views of valleys and mountains from the top, though it was a bit hazy. Also, we saw people arriving by another easy method, the cog railway.
Inside the visitor center, we read about the summit's weather and saw a video playing over and over of some guy comically attempting to eat his Wheaties breakfast in high winds. Everything blew away, of course. Back outside, we walked up to the summit sign plus saw historic buildings and the weather observatory. Of note was the sign stating that "the highest wind ever observed by man was recorded here" at 231 miles per hour.
We made our way way back down the mountain onto the highway, listening to the second part of the CD narrative, then drove north for a while until we reached Dixville Notch. In the notch, we and the car in front of us had to stop for a moose, who then frantically ran off into the woods. Right by the road, across from the beautiful Balsams Grand Resort Hotel, was a small kiosk, where a friendly lady gave us information about the hotel and area hiking options.
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| View from Table Rock of the Balsams Hotel. (Dixville Notch State Park, New Hampshire) |
Better informed, we started a short, steep climb up to Table Rock, going up one thousand feet in two tenths of a mile. It was quite strenuous, and we rarely ever had a comfortable, flat place to stand until we neared the top. From the rock at the top, the view of the steep notch and the hotel grounds below was wonderful. It started raining, though, and we decided to go down the longer, gentler route, figuring we would likely slip seriously on the steep route.
We got to the bottom easily and only had to do a little walking on the road to reach our car. Soon we were off again, stopping briefly to see the Dixville Flume and to hike the trail to the Huntington Cascades. After making the long, scenic drive south, we reached our condo in Bartlett.
Contact me if you have any questions or comments about this trip.
| Document last modified January 06, 2009. Copyright © 1995-2009 Andrew Sawadisavi. All rights reserved. |
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