A quick visit to the Alpine Garden on Mount Washington
| Date: | 6-19-2024 |
| Location: | Pinkham Notch, NH |
| Distance: | 1 mi |
| Elevation Gain: | 360′ |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 30 min |
| Parking: | 4-6 cars |
The weather was forecasted as being very hot and humid. I believe the weatherman used the word oppressive humidity.
So my sister and I decided to try and beat the heat on this Juneteenth holiday and go walk around the Alpine Garden on Mount Washington. We figured it would not be as hot or humid up there. Boy was I wrong.
We got a somewhat early start and were at the Mount Washington Auto Road entrance around 10am. We paid the toll fee ($40 for driver and vehicle and $25 each additional person) and started up the hill.
We drove slow and it was not very busy. It was still very humid though. When we got above treeline we noticed all the mountains around us were kind of hidden in the humid air.
When we arrived to the Alpine Garden Parking lot there were a few other cars there. This lot is at about 5,200’ or about a 1000’ below the summit. We grabbed our gear and started out into the rocks.
Our plan was to go out as far into the garden as we could. Our turnaround time was about 11:45 or so. So we could get back to the car and back home before 4pm. So this was going to be a quick trip.
To get the Alpine Garden trail from this point you have to climb down a few hundred feet. This will land you at a large cairn at the top of Huntington Ravine. On our way down the small breeze we had disappeared and I could really feel the heat and humidity. I was sweating a lot for going down.
The trail down is very rocky and a little steep. Caution was used in every step. When we got to the bottom by the large cairn there were a few other hikers there that had just come up Huntington Ravine.
One of the hikers did not look to good and possibly had some signs of heat exhaustion.
The other hikers gave him some water and I told him our car was up about 400’ in that direction and there was cold water and food if he wanted to rest and that we could give him a ride back down when we got back from our walk.
He said that sounded like a good idea and started up with the others. We continued on our walk on the Alpine Garden. This area is much flatter but still has a slight grade down toward Tuckerman Ravine.
Time was ticking away pretty fast. I was also feeling the heat. When the wind would stop it was very hot and humid and even breathing the air was very warm.
We walked for a ways and took some pics of the flowers that still remained. It was well past peak but there are always a few flowers poking around. At about 11:55 I mentioned that we sister we should start back. I knew it would be very slow going for me up the steep part of the trail we came down.
We made our way back slowly and up to the car with many breaks and a few photos. We could see the Cog Railway and the Cog parking at the summit.
When we got back up toward the parking lot I could see my sister was talking with the guy we meet. He looked much better and decided to take us up on the off to ride down.
Everyone got in the car and started down. We did take a couple of stops on the way down to let the breaks cool. This is especially important since it was already hot outside. One of the stops a big plume of smoke came out from my front tires.
We made it to the bottom safely and without any car damage. Lol. We dropped our friend off at Pinkham Notch where his car was and made our way back home. We were back in time for 3:30pm so everything worked our well.
Because we (mostly me) were slow moving we did not make it out to far into the garden. I plan on coming back this year and doing this hike again. Perhaps a loop up to the top and down again as well.
