This Fourth of July, Matt and I decided to make the trip to New Hampshire and drive up Mt. Washington. Although you may have never been there before, chances are you have seen the bumper sticker somewhere along your own travels. I always though the bumper sticker was kind of funny, I mean how hard could it be to drive a car to the top of a mountain. Turns out…. it’s CRAZY HARD.

The beginning of the road is super simple. It’s really pretty and you have trees on both sides of you. You think you are in for this really pretty drive thorough the mountains. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Firstly, if you are the one who is driving the car, don’t for a minute think you are going to get to enjoy the view after the first mile, you will be too busy trying not to kill yourself or another car heading back down from the summit. My knuckles were white but I was doing okay, until the road turned from black top to packed dirt. Once I made it through the dirt, where I managed to make all the hairpin turns and not end up in a ditch or careen off the mountain, I pulled over in a small turn around and made the decision we would be heading back down. There was no way in a million years I was going to drive another 2 miles up this madness. Then my loving husband starting pointing out big pick up trucks passing by, some couples in their 70’s and some cars that should not even be on a road at all. He did all but call me chicken, so we kept going to the top of what I will now refer to as Mt. Death. Seriously though, It was nuts! {note: Travis Pastrana, a rally car driver made the run in 6 minutes and 20 sec – it took us a half hour I think, granted he didn’t have traffic coming at him when he drove up… see his trip video here and think about traffic coming back out you as well, he is driving on a two lane road.}

We did make it to the top, and I had such high hopes of taking beautiful photos of the summit and the clouds around us. But. I was so shaky and petrified and concerned how we would get back down, that I planted my back to a wall and watched Matt walk up a big pile of rocks to the highest pint on the summit. I didn’t have it in me to carry around the camera. Oh how I wish i did, it was beautiful. I did manage to get a few photos when we stopped in a flat walking are on the way back down. I’m so glad I drove to the top. But I won’t ever do it again.