Evan and Lauren's Cool Blog: 7/18/14: Riding the Mount Washington Cog Railway

While on our trip to the White Mountains we felt like we really should go to the Summit of Mount Washington which is the highest summit in the northeastern part of the U.S. - elevation 6,288-feet. . You can get there a variety of ways including hiking, driving and taking the Cog Railway. My son absolutely loves train rides so we knew the Mount Washington Cog Railway was the way to go. Did you know that the Mount Washington Cog Railway was the first mountain climbing cog railway in the world?

Here you can see the trains that take you up and down the mountain.

Here is a better view of the trains on the track ready to go and the track up the mountain.

The Cog Railway was named a National Historic Engineering Landmark on June 26, 1976.

We were ready to board. I highly suggest buying your tickets in advance. Be aware that you should arrive about 45 minutes early. They do board the train 15 minutes before your departure time.

We were off an running up the mountain. Here is a view of a water tower.

Here is a beautiful view from the train.

Here we are reaching the Half-Way house.

I love seeing the tracks disappear in to the clouds.

Evan liked checking out the views of the clouds. Make sure to roam about the train. You don't have to stay seated. But remember the train will be at an incline so you will be leaning while walking.

Here we are when we got to Jacob's Ladder. This is the steepest section of the Cog's trestle, with a 37% grade. This means that there is an elevation difference of 13 feet between passengers in the front and back of the coach!

Here you can see the kids standing up.

Evan feeling the clouds. When you make it to the top you will have a half hour at the summit.

We made it! We are at the Summit!

The oldest building on the summit is the Tip Top House which was built in 1853.

Some views on the summit. They say about 70% of the time the summit is covered with clouds. Make sure to wear layers as it is much cooler at the summit. We brought sweatshirts and layered them on.

Here is a photo courtesy of the Cog Railway on a clear day of the Steam Train at the Summit.

Lauren checking things out.

The kids giving me a smile.

At the summit there is a building you can enter that has a small museum, food, and gift shops.

You receive tickets when you get your Cog tickets to go in to the Extreme Mount Washington exhibit.

Here are the kids with some hands on fun.

Here you can see differing views based on the seasons.

Can you imagine 231 miles per hour winds?

Now we are ready to head back down.

Here we go. You will see the clouds thin as we go down.

I highly suggest sitting on a different side on the way back down. Make sure to hang on to your tickets as you will use them again at the summit to come back down.

So beautiful!

A view out the side of the train.

Even though it wasn't the perfect day weather wise this was breathtaking coming down.

A view from inside the train.

Here is a short video of our journey:

Make sure to check out the displays at the base station. There you will see the first locomotive, Old Peppersass, so named because it resembled an old pepper sauce bottle, reached the summit of Mount Washington on July 3, 1869.