Mount Washington

Map of this blog's locations click this link to open the map

One of the places we wanted to visit in the area was up to the top of Mount Washington. This wouldn’t be the first time we have gone there in our lifetime but according to my records, it has been 27 years! So I don’t recall too much about the visit other than we had driven to the top in my sports car and when we arrived at the top, the car’s clutch was not working and I had to gingerly change gears until we made it back down and then all was working fine again. This time we decided we would give the cog railroad a try. Not that I was concerned about the Jeep making it but simply because we thought the idea of taking a train up to the 6288 foot summit sounded fun. Our being in the area for an extended time allows us to carefully study the weather forecast. Mt Washington is known to have some fairly nasty weather - even in the summer months - and we really wanted the best conditions possible to enjoy the views without getting soaked by rain or blown away by the strong winds. Conditions up top are always cooler than at the base station where the trains depart from, but more importantly, the cloud cover, wind and precipitation can be bad up top even when it it a pleasant summer day down below. If you have the flexibility to wait for good weather up top, it is definitely worth it.

There are multiple trains running throughout the day. But it isn’t designed that you can take a morning train up, spend the bulk of the day up top and then take a different train back down in the afternoon. The train you book will get you to the top and then you will have roughly a hour to spend before you need to get back on your train for the return trip. We contemplated seeing if we could book just the uphill leg and then hike back down but it wasn’t clear from the website how to go about doing this. They have several diesel trains and two steam powered locomotives. The steam option runs around $90 per person while the diesel is about $75. We decide to go nostalgic and book the steam locomotive with a mid afternoon departure time.

The drive from camp is not quite and hour but since we don’t need to get there until a little after 2PM, we decide to make a full day of it and explore some of the area just to the south of Mt Washington around Crawford Notch. This area is another one of the north-south passages between the mountains. This one is about 15 miles east of Franconia Notch. We have an Adventure Lab to tour us around as well as a few geocaches we hope to find. Even though there is some excellent hiking out of Crawford Notch, we know we don’t want to do something too strenuous so we can still ride on a crowded train car without feeling grubby. Our first stop is at the Crawford Notch Depot.

Crawford  Notch Depot

We have been here back in 2018 to hike to Mt Willard. That hike became one of our favorites for that year. This time we walk past Saco Lake to a trailhead a place called Elephant Head. It is a short trail of less than a quarter mile but does gain about 200 feet in elevation. It turned out to be a steeper and rockier hike than we were expecting and there were some fairly wet areas but we made it to the top and even found the geocache hidden near the overlook.

Rocky Trail to Elephant Head

Mushroom

Watch Out for Mud

The view from the top of Elephant Head was excellent although from up here, it is not at all obvious as to how it gets its name. We can see the Crawford train station, the AMC Highland Center and the Mount Washington Resort in the distance.

On Top of Elephant Head

Train Depot, AMC Highland Center, Mt Washington Resort

After coming back down to the road, I headed south for a short distance to get a look at the overlook from this vantage point. If I squint when looking at the large rock outcropping, I can convince myself that I see an elephant head.

Looks Like Elephant Head to Me

At Northern End of Crawford Notch State Park

Our next short hike would be the half mile around Saco Lake. This was a relatively easy walk but there is a section that has planks over the water to avoid a rock wall along the shoreline. The boards were in pretty good shape and the conditions were dry so we managed without incident.

Keep Your Balance!

View Across Saco Lake

It was close to lunchtime so we head north to Eisenhower Wayside Park. There is a small parking area and a hike up a hill to a lone picnic table with a geocache nearby. It worked out as a nice spot for lunch with a great view of some of the Presidential Range Mountains in the distance.

Sign Identifies Mountain Peaks

Where We Will Be in a Few Hours

As we continue north on Route 302 heading to our train ride, we stop at a large paved pullout with another view of the mountains as well as the very large and beautiful Mount Washington Resort. It is set well off the road and we could see that there is an entrance booth that people stop at on their way in. We had some more time to kill and thought it would be fun to check out the fancy hotel. We checked their website and it wasn’t clear if visitors were allowed or only guests with reservations.

Mt Washington Resort

We decide to give it a try figuring the worst that could happen was to tell us no and we turn around. The person at the booth told us visitors were permitted but there was a $10 parking fee to drive up. When we hesitated, she also told us we could park in the gravel lot next to the booth and walk up for free. Getting some more steps in was okay with us so we parked and started the quarter mile walk towards the resort. On the way up, we come across an oversized chess set.

Chris Makes Her Opening Move

The resort is definitely big. Opening in 1902, this resort has some very elaborate architecture and appointments. We head inside and wander around the large common areas where it seemed like we were permitted. There is actually stages of a multi cache at the resort. We needed to find a few signs in some of the larger rooms off the lobby in order to determine where the final cache location was.

This Place is BIG

Large Ballroom

Stained Glass

We head out to the huge covered deck on the backside of the building. There were a few people taking in lunch with some awesome views of the mountains. The pool area looked nice but wasn’t very busy.

Dining on the Deck

Rear of Resort

Overlooking Pool and Golf Course

We couldn’t stay long since we have a train to catch but this would be a great destination for well todo travelers to experience the White Mountains.

Main Entrance

Lily Pads

We take the remaining time to pick up a couple more stages of the Adventure Lab and another geocache before heading to the train station. The stone Church of the Transfiguration was quite beautiful and after a brief search, I found the hide across the street from there. We also made a quick stop at the Bretton Woods Nordic Center. This wasn’t too crowded this time of year but come winter, I bet it is very popular.

Church of Transfiguration

Nordic Center

With about 30 minutes before we needed to check in and get our train tickets, we start the drive up to Marshfield Station. The turn off of Route 302 is very well marked with a replica cog locomotive pointing the way. Just for reference, the cog railway comes up from the west side of Mt Washington while the auto road approaches from the east side.

Turn Here for Cog Railway

Marshfield Station

We head into the train station and pickup our tickets. I ask about the procedure for taking the train one way up or down and hiking the trails either down or up. It sounds like while that can be done, one way tickets are not sold in advance. So if you hike up and want to take the train down, you may get a seat but you might not. Likewise, if we were looking to take the train up and hike down, we would show up at the station and basically be a standby passenger waiting for an open seat. Marshfield Station has a gift shop, restaurant and lots of displays explaining about the history of this unusual means of transportation.

Part of Retired Steam Engine

Construction of the railway started in 1866 and the first train made it to the summit in July of 1869. The stats for the track are impressive. Running a distance of 2.9 miles, the trains start at 2661 feet and climbs to 6267. That works out to an average slope of 24% and reaches a maximum of 38% grade along the way. A “normal” train relies on friction between the steel drive wheels and steel tracks and usually needs to have a maximum grade of 1.5% to 4%. So how does this train handle such steep grades? Well, that is where the name “cog” comes in. The locomotive and passenger cars for this train still run on pretty normal train tracks but the drive mechanism is a large cog, or gear, on the drive axle that engages with a rack which runs in between the two tracks. It is a similar principle to that of a bicycle gear and chain but just much larger in scale.

Old Drive Axle Showing Cog in Center

Two Conventional Tracks and Rack Which Cog Engages

Route of Cog Railway From Station to Summit with Elevation Profile

We had a little time to kill as we waited for our departure time. There were 3 diesel locomotives and our steam engine all leaving one after another. The three diesels were coming back down from the summit with full loads of passengers. It was interesting to watch them slowly come back into the station.

Looking Up the Start of the Cog Railway Route

Base Station 2700 Feet

A Group of Passengers Return

Since the steam locomotive doesn’t make as many trips, it only had to come up from the maintenance area to get in line behind the other trains. The steam locomotive has a small coal car in the rear which is used to get it to the top. It is pretty impressive looking especially since these are pretty old. The one we were utilizing, the Ammonoosuc, was built in 1875 - nearly 150 years old!

Our Steam Powered Chariot Awaits

Closeup of Cog Engaging Rack - One of the Brake Axles

The passenger car sits in front of the locomotive and are newer designs. We get in line and find our reserved seats. Our car had 14 rows of seats with 3 on the left and two on the right side - room for 70 people. The seats are wooden benches that aren’t particularly comfortable but will do. They are angled to the floor in an odd way but the reason becomes obvious when we start our ascent. Since the car is angled significantly upward, having the benches angled down makes them a bit more level during the trip.

Lining Up to Board

Nice Woodworking in Passenger Car

Ready to Go

The three diesels start up first. I’m not sure if there is a speed difference with ours but we were told that we will be stopping partway up the climb to take on more water for the boiler. I think each train had a crew of three working. We don’t really see the engineer or the coal man but there is a worker in with the passengers. Most of the time on the way up he is explaining about the history of the railway, or pointing out various features along the way. We stop roughly one mile into the trip at Waumbek Station to take on water. Surprisingly the cog railroad operates year round but in the winter, the trip only come up to this stop and only the diesel locomotives are used.

View of Other Trains Ahead of Us

Pulling Into Waumbek Station for Water

Our stop isn’t all that long and then we are off again. There were a couple of observations worth mentioning. Generally a train ride can be a rather soothing way of travel. We have done several train trips over the years and usually like the clickety clack of a train running over the tracks. A cog train ride is far from smooth and relaxing. It seems like there is constant jerkiness of the cog drive meshing with the center rail. We also questioned whether taking the steam option was the best choice. Since the weather was nice, the windows were open and depending on the wind direction, we would occasionally get some of the thick smoke from the coal powered burner wafting through the car. At times there were even small flecks of black ash on my clothing.

Smoke from Our Coal Burner

At the Half-Way House - 4500 Feet

About 1.6 miles up the track, we come to a section known as Jacob’s Ladder. Besides being the steepest part of the route, there is also an elevated section of track with a trestle to make the grade be more consistent. We can definitely tell our steam engine is struggling. All I could think of was The Little Engine That Could - “I think I can, I think I can”.

Train Ahead of Us on Jacob's Ladder

A Closer View of the Trestle

Jacob's Ladder

As we approach the summit, we can start to see some of the buildings up top as well as make out people wandering around. It took us about 70 minutes to make the trip up. In hindsight, we likely would have been better off with seats on the left hand side of the train since the views off that direction may have been better. Occasionally I am able to get up and look out the front door of the passenger car. Before we disembark, the worker tells us when we need to be back to the train to make the return trip. Being a little after 4 PM, we know we would have a hard time making the 8.2 mile hike back down before dark.

Nearing the Top

Our Train Made it

The Summit is Part of the State Park System

Besides the typical sightseeing from the summit, we have a few geocaching goals while we are up here. One of the more unique caches is a webcam cache. These types of caches do not have a physical container to find but direct visitors to a spot on the summit where there is a webcam. This one was created in 2005 and back in the “olden” days of webcams, you would often need to phone a friend and have them log into the camera’s website to save off a picture. With today’s smartphones, it is a little easier but we were unsure whether we would have adequate cell coverage to do this from here. If we ran into trouble, we believed there was wi-fi in one of the buildings that could be used and one person could stand at the spot while the other grabbed the photo. Fortunately our Verizon signal was good here and we had no troubles getting our photo.

Our Webcam Photo

We had definitely picked a picture perfect day. It was in the low 50’s up here and very light winds. We worked our way around the summit and took in the views in every direction.

A Reasonably Clear Day

More Trains on the Track

A Good View of Our Ride

There are some interesting buildings up here as well. The Tip-Top House is an impressive stone building built in 1853 as a hotel. Another building that serves as the gift shop is a more conventional looking building with one glaring exception. There are three chains that are anchored into the ground on either side and go up and over the roof of the building.  The chains are not simply for shock value but are functional as the highest wind ever observed by man was recorded here in April 1934 - 231 miles per hour!

The Stone Tip-Top House

Cars that Drove Auto Road to Summit

Chain Your Building Down

We also headed to another cache hidden here that was simply a bring a special rock to add to the pile. It turns out that the pile wasn’t as big as I was expecting it we found it and made our contribution.

Chris Poses at Rock Pile Cache

Another Tip-Top House View

We wandered through the main visitor center to check things out. We also headed over to the line of people that were waiting to take their picture at the sign marking the summit of Mt Washington. The group before us had fully loaded backpacks and had likely just hiked up here. We felt a bit like cheaters but we will admit we simply rode the train up if someone asks.

Weather Station Data

Wooden Hiker

We Made It!

About an hour later, we make our way back over to our train and come aboard. Interestingly the benches have now been reconfigured for the downhill portion of the trip with the backs flipped around so we are facing downhill.

All the Benches Flipped for Return Trip

Our worker that was our tour guide on the way up now has a much more critical roll on the way down. He is the brakeman for the passenger car. He stands up at the front (downhill side) of the car and has a couple of large wheels that kind of look like steering wheels but are actually used to control how much force is applied to the brakes on our car. He warns us before we start that the brakes often get quite hot and smell, but that is normal and does not indicate that there is a problem. I’m glad he told us because her was right about the smell. It also became clear why our tour guide was a big, burly man with massive arms. I was watching him the whole trip down and it definitely looked like his job was a good workout.

Brakeman at Work

We safely made it back to Marshfield Station about 3 hours after our departure up Mt Washington. This was a very fun and unique experience.

Our Last View of the Summit from Marshfield Station