My family has been planning on going up to Mount Washington since we first saw a car with the bumper sticker saying “This car climbed Mount Washington”. Not really, but it’s kinda true. As snowbirds who flock down south to warmer places, we didn’t really explore much of the colder places in America, but this time we did. Exploring Mount Washington was something that I didn’t really know I was going to be doing in 2023, but there we were. Instead of actually climbing Mt. Washington by car so that we could actually buy one of those bumper stickers. We decided to take the easy but fun way up.



In June of 2023, we went to New Hampshire and decided to ride the cog railway up to the mountain. The trip started at 8:30 in the morning, and the total time was three hours. One hour to go up, one hour to spend up at the summit, and one hour to go back down.



Fun Fact: Mount Washington is the highest peak in New England. (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont).

At the summit of 6288 ft. Sylvester Marsh built the cog railway in 1868. He wanted other people to be able see the beauty and nature of the landscape from the top of Mt. Washington. He used his own money, but he also raised some money to create this railway that still exists today. The Cog Railway is the first mountain-climbing cog railway in the world. It is also the second steepest. The steepest is the located in Switzerland. He built an odd-looking steam engine, and named it “Pepper-sass” because of its vertical boiler’s resemblance to a pepper sauce bottle. Hence the inspiration for this blog post’s title.

The original engine was decommissioned in 2008, but it is still on display.



A “cog and rack” mechanism (like the sprocket and chain on a bicycle) enables the train to safely climb an average grade of 25%. The name is slightly self-explanatory, it uses cogs and a rack, but I think I would describe it more like climbing a ladder, with the rack as a ladder and cogs as the hands and feet climbing it.

There are two kinds of locomotives that climb Mt. Washington. One is a coal-powered steam engine and the other is a diesel powered engine. We decided to go old school, and take the coal powered train, and yes, there was someone shoveling coal during the journey. Personally, I really like the design of the old steam powered train, it looks like an actual train. As you can see below, the diesel powered ones don’t really look like complete trains, more like a train car and a half. But if you want a quicker and more efficient way to get up and down the mountain, that’s the best way to go. I suppose it’s also worth mentioning that the steam train is slow. The diesel one passed us and beat us to the summit. Hah.







So the whole thing about the above pictures is that the incline is just so steep, so I’m actually just standing up straight but it looks like I’m leaning forward. A good hamstrings stretch.



It was a little chilly at the top of Mt. Washington, as you can see because of the snow. There wasn’t a whole lot of visibility up there, but it was enough to be able to see what you needed to. I wish I could say more about the summit, but honestly it wasn’t the clearest day, and we couldn’t see that much so it was just… cold and snowy on the top of the mountain. The snow was nice up there, I ate some ice, took a picture at the sign that said we were at the summit. We headed inside for some warmth and some hot chocolate. There is also another gift shop at the summit. We sent a post card to our friends back home because there was a post office at the top of the mountain! I thought that was really cool, but it also brings the question for all of these mountain summit tours that are still going on today. What amount of nature lover/adventurer do you have to be to hike up an unexplored mountain by yourself, and then build an entire post office on the top. Just my shower thoughts after we got back from Mt. Washington.





There’s just a little bit of ice on the wall.



The Tip Top House (LOVE the name), was built in 1853, and it is the oldest surviving building in the summit area of Mount Washington.

According to New Hampshire, it is the oldest mountain-top hotel in the world. Now, it isn’t a hotel anymore, and it features exhibits concerning the mountain’s history. Like a museum. The Tip Top House is like an underground/overground structure, and it’s made of stone. It’s like a basement.

After spending an hour at the summit, we rode the train all the way down the mountain. Since we were already in the park, we explored it a little bit further. It had some of the prettiest waterfalls. And everything was so lush and green, and the cloudy weather made everything just a little bit magical and enchanted. Or maybe that’s just me seeing the world how I want to. Hehe.



Mt. Washington is open all year round. They have special vehicles that they use in the winter time to take you all the way up the mountain. I would highly recommend going up to Mt. Washington, I really enjoyed my time up there, and even though we couldn’t see much of the views, the train ride was really fun. I loved getting to learn about the old trains, and ride the more improved modern ones. If you’re ever near the area, I recommend booking some tickets in advance and waking up early one day to experience the the Mt. Washington Cog Train!

The Cog

Besides visiting Mt. Washington, you can also visit North Conway. And if you want more trains, you can take a scenic train ride through the mountains in New Hampshire.
Train Ride

That’s it for this post! I hoped that you enjoyed this post, and maybe you even learned something new!

Have you ever heard of Mt. Washington/The Cog Train?
Have you ever been there, and if you have, what was the view like?
Let me know in comments 😀