The Mt. Washington Auto Road is now open to treeline, but the Road Crew is still hard at work opening the rest of the Road. For the details, check out the Road Blog.

Sunrise from the highest peak in the Northeast

(More blog entries from howie)

A great sunrise in Sept. '06

For an other-worldly experience consider this opportunity

This Sunday, August 5th, the Auto Road will open to the public at 4:30 am for a chance to drive to the summit to enjoy the sunrise as it comes up over the Atlantic Ocean. What are the chances that it will be clear enough to actually see the sunrise? Good question! As always, it's anyone's guess what the summit will reveal on Sunday morning - but I can tell you from experience it's worth the gamble to get up early and see. We had about 40 cars and motorcyles drive up on July 1st, our first shot at this and even though the actual summit was clouded in, the views from Six Mile and Cragway were pretty stunning. The forecast for Sunday seems quite reasonable at this point so I hope to see you here to enjoy one of the true wonders of New England.

Comments

Re: Sunrise from the highest peak in the Northeast
by Trevor on Aug 3rd 2007, 7:56 pm

Would you recommend a guided tour for this?

Re: Sunrise from the highest peak in the Northeast
by Howie on Aug 4th 2007, 12:21 pm

Guided tours will not be available for this sunrise experience. These two sunrise early openings are the first time we've offered this, so not knowing what the interest level would be we have not planned to open the lodge and offer guided tours.

Re: Sunrise from the highest peak in the Northeast
by Jane on Aug 5th 2007, 12:00 pm

Highly recommended. We just got back from this morning's sunrise. My first time up the Mt. and I've lived in northern NH for 40+ years. The perfect way to see it for the first time. We are blessed for the beauty we take for granted everyday. Thanks and I hope you do this again next year. We'll spread the word!

Re: Sunrise from the highest peak in the Northeast
by Howie on Aug 6th 2007, 11:04 am

Glad you enjoyed your first trip up to the summit! What a spectacular morning. We were surprised and delighted with the interest folks had in getting up early to watch the sunrise. We'll definitely do this again next year -probably three times. be sure and check out the photos posted on the Obs web site www.mountwashington.org.

Re: Sunrise from the highest peak in the Northeast
by Matt Adams on Aug 7th 2007, 3:22 pm

We woke @ 2:30am to get to the Auto Road by 4:30 to get to the top of Mt. Washington in time for sunrise. I had checked the website for directions and exceptions and everything looked fine. We got there about 4:35am and waited in line for about 15 minutes. When we got to the head of the line the Ranger told us we were not allowed up the road because we were driving a 2005 Toyota Prius and that they haven't decided if these we safe enough on the descent. So after a exceptionally early morning and long drive we left before sunset and in search of breakfast. It would be nice if they posted the Toyota on their exception list as ther are quite q few on the road and have been in production for over seven years.

Re: Sunrise from the highest peak in the Northeast
by Howie on Aug 8th 2007, 9:01 am

Sorry for that disappointment, Matt! This is the first year that we have started to see many problems with the Toyota Hybrid vehicles that have the CVT transmission and until we can evaluate why we felt it was prudent to restrict their use on the Auto Road as a safety precaution. We have added these vehicles to the "Vehicle Limitations" page on the Auto Road site

Re: Sunrise from the highest peak in the Northeast
by Jim Studley on Aug 9th 2007, 9:00 am

We had the great, good fortune to be second in line last Sunday morning for the ride up the Auto Road. What made it even better was that we were driving our little Mazda Miata with the top down of course. I have done several stints as a volunteer in the 'Obs' and it just never gets old. It couldn't have been a better morning and we were thrilled to see so many people there to partake of 'Mother Nature's' incredible sunrise display. Thank you to the Auto Road personnel for making this a possibility for the folks that wouldn't normally have the opportunity to see such a spectacle. It was just a fantastic experience.

Re: Sunrise from the highest peak in the Northeast
by Ryan on Aug 10th 2007, 9:27 am

Check out the video from our Sunrise Opening on August 5. Thanks to Meg Simone for her fine camera work! http://www.mountwashingtonautoroad.com/Page-215.html