A museum in the center at the top brags that the peak of Mount Washington is home to “the world’s worst weather.” Winds of 231 miles an hour have been recorded here, along with temperatures of minus 47 degrees Fahrenheit.
Appalachian Trail hikers wave as you pass ( A Walk in the Woods author Bill Bryson did the same route) some hikers climb up in three or four hours then ride the railway down.Ĭlouds drifted in as I reached the top, then disappeared, unveiling wide views of the Presidential Range and beyond. Opened in 1869, this rack railway, the train’s toothed wheels interlocked to the rails, takes almost an hour to climb past a jumble of rock to the top. The 40-foot-tall face seemed more of a Dick Tracy, with jutting chin and rounded nose. Looking at photos in the small museum where an aerial tram ran up Cannon Mountain and fudge was for sale, the first thing I saw was that Old Man didn’t look that old. The first steel rods and turnbuckles to hold the rocky outcrop in place were set in 1916.
#WHITE MOUNTAINS FLUME GORGE NH FREE#
It became a state emblem and can be seen on highway signs and the state quarter.Īt the small free museum, I learned locals knew for more than a century that the Old Man was in need of help. You could see it from the highway until it fell in 2003. The rock is the Old Man of the Mountain, a granite likeness of a man’s profile-made of five interlocking pieces actually-that once jutted out from the top of a hulking green mountain.
Old Man of the Mountain Profile Plaza, Franconia Notch State ParkĪ few miles south in Franconia Notch State Park, along I-93, it’s possible to visit a memorial to a rock.
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