24 July Update: I don’t know this guy, and the day he went sounds busier than the rainy day I was there, but his description of the road is spot on accurate!  http://www.gad.net/Blog/2011/09/02/the-mount-washington-auto-road/  Just imagine me doing this in the rain in a vehicle that is also my home!!

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In spite of being from the northeast, I had never spent much time in New Hampshire, so was looking forward to today’s drive.  I wanted to explore the White Mountain National Forest, and especially to see the view from the top of Mount Washington, the highest peak in the northeast at 6,288 feet.  My GPS got me to New Hampshire without a problem, but then got a little whimsical, making me actually circumnavigate Mount Washington in order to get to the road up it, and also trying to send me down this.  This is not a road, this is someone’s lawn.  It had a lovely view, though.

In fact, the whole drive today reminded me that it’s been far too long since I was in real mountains.  There’s definitely something wild and magical about forests and mountains, and I felt happier and more at peace just being near them.  I can’t help but believe that part of the reason I left Australia was that I wasn’t near enough to views like this.

In spite of my GPS, I did eventually get to the start of the auto road up Mount Washington, and was greeted by this sign.  Now I’m an experienced and confident driver, and I’ve done a moderate bit of four wheel driving, so this didn’t faze me too much.  How bad could it be?

It can get pretty nerve wracking, as it turns out!  Although the material that comes with the entrance fee states that the road is everywhere wide enough to accommodate two cars passing, in more than a few spots that was questionable, and I pulled in my side mirrors to avoid getting them scraped off.  The real issue was that there were severe consequences for making an error, with no guard rails and a steep plunge as soon as you leave the road.  Only one mile of the road was dirt and gravel, but that was the narrowest and consequently the most trying, although near the top even the paved roadway was thrilling.  I admit that I was gripping the steering wheel pretty tightly in spots!  I made it to the top, but it was completely in the clouds, so although I tried to get a picture, it didn’t come out well.  Here’s a picture of the FJ just below the peak.

Looking back up, here’s all I could see of the peak itself and the observatory there.  This is the site of the fastest wind gust ever recorded on Earth, at 231 miles per hour, recorded on April 12, 1934.  While I was there, thunder and lightening started, so I didn’t stay all that long.

It was recommended that all vehicles use low gear on both the ascent and descent, and that’s what I did, but even so I had to keep tapping the brakes all the way down.  I stopped a few times in the pull outs provided to make sure the brakes were staying cool, and they were, but I could smell a lot of burning brake pads from other cars.

Quite a few people on motorcycles made the trip up, but it must have been a wet ride down in the rain.

Tearing my eyes off the road, the view was stunning though.

This is the route taken by the Climb to the Clouds hillclimb rally that will be held again next year, after a hiatus of several years.  If you want to see some insane driving, check it out on YouTube, with the fastest run starting at about half way through the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG6_TxwaWlg.  They make it look easy.  It’s not!!

The rain was coming down harder by the time I made it to the bottom again.

It was really an incredible experience, and I’m so glad I did it, although I wasn’t so glad when I was in the middle of those narrow sections!

I drove south in the afternoon, and passed by the Old Man of the Mountain, which is frequently used as a symbol of New Hampshire, including on the road signs.  Unfortunately, on May 3, 2003, the face itself collapsed due to natural forces, and so all that can be seen now is the cliff where it once looked out across Franconia Notch.

There was a beautiful lake below it, however, and I watched a man and his sons pull out a large trout before the rain came pouring down and I moved on south again, thinking of my fishing friends who would have liked it there.