On the way to today’s destination, we stopped at a shop called Chutters which claims to have the longest candy counter in the world!
That photo isn’t even the entire selection, which ran down an entire wall of the store. Hundreds of different lollies were available, and naturally we invested in a few. They had all sorts of other candies also, as well as souvenirs, and to be honest the store was worth a better look if not for the fact we had somewhere we needed to be.
Mount Washington, at 6288 feet, is the tallest mountain in the northeastern USA. In 1869 the world’s first cog railway was built to ascend the mountain (for tourism reasons!) and it operates to this day. Today, we rode it to the top.
The carriages are pushed by a locomotive and ascend slowly (about 5 miles an hour) up a 25-35% grade (the second steepest in the world) along 3 miles of track to the top. The peak is about 4000 feet above the base station and the trip to the top takes about 45 minutes.
Of course the views are lovely, especially north of the track where at one point the mountain falls off almost 2000 feet. At the start the train passes through pine forests but shortly the trees are replaced by scrub and eventually – around 5000 feet above the tree line – just rocks and lichens.
I took that photo from the large visitors center at the mountain top, which has gift stores, a cafe and a few other facilities. You can see one of the trains in the photo as it approaches the station at the top. Several of the adjacent mountain peaks are visible in the distance.
Aside from the train, you can drive or hike to the top. Hiking is popular but challenging and sadly many (over 170) have died on the slope in the last 150 years. The top of Mount Washington is known for unpredictable and at times life-threatening weather but we got lucky and today experienced clear skies and lovely weather.
There’s a post office at the peak which apparently – although I’m not positive – has a unique postmark. I sent a few cards to check, so if you get one have a look 🙂
The round trip is about three hours, including one at the top. The trip down is even more spectacular than up since all the views are breathtaking. I found it quite relaxing and maybe even had a micronap or two 😉
Afterwards we checked into our hotel – the Mount Washington Hotel (now called Omni) – which has been here almost 125 years! It’s absolutely not the inspiration for the hotel in Steven King’s novel The Shining, but regardless has its own ghost named Caroline who is ‘often’ seen sitting on the bed in room 314.
As a historic and very expensive hotel with valet parking, it’s of course too fancy for proletariat like us, so I felt right at home loafing in the room enjoying fine food:
Or partaking of the facilities in the basement:
It’s been a while since I played pinball. It made me want to play them more…