No kidding you can drive up Mount Washington in New Hampshire. My husband always thought it was a joke. He'd see those "This car climbed Mt. Washington" bumper stickers and thought it had to be a joke. Must have had to do with growing up in Massachusetts or something. Little did he know that there was an auto road up the mountain. I grew up in New Hampshire and had heard about the auto road.
So around our first anniversary we set out to drive our car up Mount Washington. We arrived in Great Glen, NH sometime in the afternoon. We paid the fees to drive our car almost 8 miles up the mountain and received a packet of goodies. One of the first things we did was read all the rules. You are required to do this, it's for your safety. They also had a cassette tape in the goodie packet that you could listen to about the history and legends of the mountain while you drove up the road. Included was the famous bumper sticker. You can buy more at the gift shop at the summit, but that's cheating. No fair putting that bumper sticker on a car that never went up the highest peak in New England!
One of the fun parts is looking over the edge of the road while driving up. Sometimes you are very close to the edge. Don't worry, last I knew no one had gone careening off the auto road down Mount Washington.
When you get to the summit, the weather is very different than at the base. When we began our ascent the weather was a sunny 80 degrees. At the top it was a sunny, windy 32 degrees. Brrrr... Something you want to be prepared for - we weren't. So we ran into the gift shop to warm up.
The descent down was just as fun as the ride up. Cars going down have the right of way, so if you are on your way up you have to make room for cars coming down the mountain.
OK, if you don't want to drive up the mountain in your own car there are guided tours and there is the Cog Railway on the other side of the mountain. Someday, I plan on taking the Cog Railway up.
The information below is also found at the Mount Washington Auto Road Website.
Guided Tours
Guided tours in Auto Road vans are available from 8:30 am until 5 pm and take approximately 1 1/2 hours round trip including 1/2 hour on the summit. If you buy your ticket before 9:30 am you will spend 1 hour at the top instead of 1/2 hour.
| $22 | Adults |
| $20 | Seniors (62+) |
| $10 | Children (age 5 - 12) |
| Free | Children under 5 |
Private Vehicles
| $16 | Car and driver (includes audio tour on cassette or CD in English, French or German) |
| $8 | Motorcycle and operator |
| $6 | Each additional adult |
| $4 | Children age 5 - 12 |
| Free | Children under 5 |
Hours
| Early May thru May 18 | 8:00am - 4:00pm |
| May 18 - June 15 | 8:00am - 5:00pm |
| June 16 - September 3 | 7:30am - 6:00pm |
| September 4 - 16 | 7:30am - 5:30pm |
| September 17 - October 8 | 7:30am - 5:00pm |
| October 9 thru closing | 8:00am - 4:30pm |
Hours subject to weather
If you are planning to trek to Mount Washington, you may want to give them a call that day to be sure you'll be able to get to the summit. (603) 466-3988
