Mount Washington New Hampshire

ahschneid
2 days ago
6 min read

Temp was 40 degrees at the top with sustained winds of 60mph and a gust of 104 mph about an hour before we arrived...

Well the Escapade 2026 is over, but our fun in Fryeburg Maine wasn't over. Most folks left on the Friday and Saturday, but a few of us stayed till Sunday. Friday evening one of the campers who stayed invited everyone for a potluck/happy hour from 5pm-6:30pm. I was amazed at all the people who came. We had about 30 people, I'd say, and everyone had a great time chatting about the Escapade and where they're going next. Sandy, one of the hosts of the potluck, had gotten a great sunset picture from the Fryeburg Fairgrounds one evening and she shared it with us. Anita sat next to a couple, Kelly and Mark, who are from Oregon and have been full time RV'ers for about 8 months now. They're very nice and Anita's age, so we found we found it easy to talk. We ended up going out to dinner with them on our last night (Saturday) and we all had a great time. Mark likes to fish, so Steve and he had no problem talking about fishing. It was fun sharing stories about the road and how lucky we all are to be living this lifestyle.

Sunset from Fryeburg Fairgrounds Fryeburg Maine during Escapade 14-19 June 2026

On Friday 19 June many people went up Mount Washington on the Cog Railway. This was an excursion you could sign up for when signing up for the Escapade. We had already gone up on the Cog Railway and the weather was not conducive to hiking, so Saturday we decided to take the auto route up the mountain. It was incredibly windy at the top and with misty rain or fog we really couldn't see anything. Walking outside up at the top meant getting wet and Steve even got a little blood on his face from something like a rock chip or grain of sand coming at 60mph! It was wild! When the temperature is below freezing at the top, there is this thing called 'rime ice,' which is a combination of fog/clouds, ice and wind. The Rime Ice can freeze in mid air, creating feathery "sculptures".

Mt. Washington is known for the worst weather in the world, so we couldn't be upset about not seeing anything. We were happy to get back to the truck in one piece to head back down the mountain. It happened to be a little after noon, so we had our lunch on Mt. Washington. We had been advised when we got our tickets to drive up the mountain to come down in a low gear. We went all the way down in 1st or 2nd gear. Our truck reached a milestone of sorts on our way down. It flipped 141,000 miles.

Once we were off the mountain, we had seen a waterfall we wanted to stop at, so we headed for Glen Ellis Falls south of Gorham NH. On our way there, we stopped in at the Appalachian Mountain Club Visitor Center. This was a neat place to see. Appalachian Trail hikers can stop here for a nights rest, a hot meal and a shower. There seemed to be many hikers there when we stopped in. The A. T. is about 5 miles from Mt. Washington.

Mt. Washington Auto Road - 10 miles south of Gorham NH - 20 June 2026

Mt. Washington Auto Road - 10 miles south of Gorham NH - 20 June 2026