The Top of New England -- Mount Washington, NH

On our way from Montreal to Boston, we drove through some beautiful country, across Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. We made it a point to drive up the magnificent Mount Washington, in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. This was a really special experience!

Kim can sometimes be quite the worry-wart. She was really, really, really nervous about the drive up. You be the judge... Does she look like she's having fun here? I think so too :-)

We shot a little video, maybe you can get a sense of what it's like to drive up and down Mount Washington...

The views are just spectacular, as you can imagine! I took hundreds of pictures, since it was so clear. A clear day on the top of Mount Washington is really special. The last time I was here 5 years ago, the entire mountain was covered in clouds, and you could barely see your hands in front of your face.

This is the most famous building on the summit...

Here, the highest wind every observed by man was recorded. 231 miles/hour! (I believe this has recently been eclipsed, though...)

In fact, it gets so windy, the entire building is chained to the mountain!

Kim really enjoyed the Tip Top House, the oldest structure on the summit.

Inside, she particularly loved the two wood burning stoves

Here we are at the summit, the highest point in all of New England. It can be seen from the coast, on a clear day. I'm looking a bit chunky here...my pockets are full of camera lenses, I swear!

The last time I visited Mount Washington with Paul and Lisa in 2005, it was really, really cloudy (foggy). Here's Paul and Lisa at the same sign, on June 12, 2005.

That previous time, I road the cog railway up. It was fun, but exorbitantly expensive. We had a lot of fun driving our vehicle up, for far less money, and listening to the cheesy CD tour :-)

The locomotive is now powered by biodiesel. When I last rode the cog railway up Mount Washington in 2005, I'm almost positive it was coal-powered, spewing nasty black soot all the way up the mountain. This looked many times cleaner, to me. (Checked, and yeah, on locomotive was converted to biodiesel in 2008.)

This thermometer only hammered home what we already knew...it was windy and cold for a sunny August afternoon!

On the roof of the observation deck, we exchanged a couple of wind-blown, chilly portraits. Still, it was quite a spectacular day!

And a big thanks to Giuseppe the Jeep for making it all the way up, back down, and all these thousands of miles so far this trip. I would be rewarding him a week later with a fresh oil change :-)

:-Dustin