Daily Archives: August 18, 2009
Climbing Mt. Washington and here a moose, there a moose…
We left Moose River Campground about 11 am and headed up US 2 toward Gorham, NH.
The road wasn’t too bad, a bit curvy, but OK, and we pulled into the Walmart about 12:30 pm and set up house.
Gorham Walmart
Actually, when we Wally-dock, there’s nothing to setup. We don’t lower the jacks, or put out the slide. The only thing we do is just unhook the truck so we can drive around.
We decided to try a place called Crabby Jack’s Mexican Cafe for lunch, since we were hungry for Mexican.
Big Mistake! The service was bad and food wasn’t any better.
After our so-called lunch, we headed down to Gorham’s Visitor’s Information booth to check out the sign that got Jan all giddy.
It said “Moose Tours”
After signing up for the 6:30 pm tour that evening, I noticed a brochure on Mt. Washington. I knew it was in New Hampshire, but I didn’t know it was close by.
Turns out that it’s right down the road. It’s about 8 miles to the base of the mountain, and then about 8 miles to the summit, all 6288 feet of it.
We decided we had plenty of time to do the mountain before our moose tour, so we headed out.
And it is a heck of a climb. During the 8 miles, you climb over 5000 ft. And it seems like it’s straight up at times.
Mt Washington 1
But, although it was a little hazy, the view was spectacular.
Mt Washington 2
The Mt. Washington Auto Road gave birth to the oldest man-made tourist attraction in the US. When it was built in the 1861 (Yes, 1861), it was called the Mt. Washington Carriage Road. And stagecoaches took visitors to the top.
It’s still the same road, and not much improved, it seems.
And then in 1869 they built the Cog Train. It runs on a train track with a cog track in the center that lets the train climb the steep grades like a roller coaster does…clack, clack, clack.
Cog Train 1
That little yellow dot is the train coming up the mountain. It takes about an hour to come up and an hour to go back down.
It only takes about 20 min in your car.
Cog Train 2
“I think I can, I think I can…”
Cog Train 3
This gift shop building dates from 1878. Note that it is chained down!
Mt Washington Gift Shop
And here’s why!
Mt Washington Sign
231 MPH !!!
I think they need more chains.
The new buildings are built to withstand 300 MPH winds.
And, of course, we got our official bumpersticker for our trip up.
bumperstickerWEB
I’ve seen these on cars before, and now I know how they got them.
About 6:30 pm we board our tour bus for our “moose tour”.
And we actually saw moose, 4 of them, to be exact. 2 sets of cows and calves. No bulls, unfortuately.
These pictures were taken about 9:30 pm at night, lighted by spotlight.
Moose 1
Moose 2
Moose 3
Moose 4
Moose 5
These moose were about 30 yards away at the time.
We also saw an osprey, 2 foxes, a deer, and 2 loons.
And some pretty scenery earlier in the evening.
Dam
Tomorrow morning we head out to Bangor, ME for a few days before we trek further north to Canada.
More then…
