Wall of Snow Created After Mount Washington Auto Road Clearing Begins
Spring is here in New England. The snow has melted, the temperatures are rising and we're finally about to put away our winter jackets. There's still one place in New England that still has plenty of snow, so much so that plows have made a giant snow wall clearing it from the roads. I'm talking about Mount Washington.
At 6,288 feet Mount Washington is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States and that means it's the last place in the Northeast to have the snow melt away. This picture of the sunrise at the summit taken on April 13 shows just how much snow remains.
Further down the mountain, there is less snow, and every spring the Mount Washington Auto Road is cleared as far as Cragway Turn, about 5.2 miles up the mountain and 2.5 miles from the summit. Clearing the road leaves behind a massive snow wall. You can see just how tall the wall is in these photos of Mount Washington Observatory Staff posing against the all during a shift change.
The auto road won't be open to the public all the way to the summit until late May. Yeah, it really takes that long! The road will close again to the public sometime in October. But if you just can't wait, The Mount Washington Auto Road does offer an early spring trip in a tour van equipped with tire chains that will take you up as far as Cragway Turn.
You can book that trip of any trip throughout the season with your own car or be driven up in a tour van now. Just go to mt-washington.com to purchase your tickets.