Mt.Washington Resort

Omni Mt. Washington hotel

One of the most unique views in New England is that of the Omni Mount Washington Resort in Bretton Woods.  For more than 100 years the bleached white building with distinctive towers and bright red roof has loomed in the shadow of New England's tallest mountain, where it catered to the rich and famous.

Mountain looming behind the hotel

Like the presidents, celebrities and power brokers that once graced its halls, the Mount Washington Resort commands your attention.  You can't help but be stricken with a sense of awe as you're driving along Route 302 and this elegant hotel materializes from behind the treeline.  It's as if you were just transported to a storybook land in the middle of the New Hampshire wilderness.

I've driven past the resort more times than I can count, and would be lying if I said I wasn't envious of the all cars I've seen cross the Ammonoosuc River and head up the meandering driveway.  But now it was my turn to experience a stay at the resort first-hand.

To be clear, I've been in the hotel before, but was relegated to the common areas during a hotel tour a couple years ago.  However, there was something about walking up to the front desk and checking in that made me feel like I had finally "arrived."

After receiving my key, I headed up the grand staircase to the second floor to find my room.  Walking down the long, broad corridor, I started thinking about how many people, in how many different eras, trod this same path over the hotel's 115-year history as visions of women in flapper dresses and men in suit coats with top hats and pocket watches played in my head.

At the end of the hall was Room 280.  On the other side of the door, I discovered a corner room with 12-foot ceilings, two queen beds and stunning views of Mt. Washington out two of my four windows.  It was a view you couldn't help but pause and admire for a few minutes.  Being that it was late spring, the mountaintop had a light coating of snow and you could see the distinctive dark line up the mountainside defining the tracks of the historic Cog Railway.

View from hotel room

In addition to visiting the Mt. Washington Resort for the first time, I also got to experience the Cog Railway to the summit of New England's tallest mountain for the first time.  The only way to describe the experience was "Spectacular!"  Anyone who knows anything about Mt. Washington knows that the weather on the mountain is unpredictable and sometimes downright inhospitable.  Our trip to the summit was anything but that.  If you could describe the perfect spring day atop Mt. Washington, this probably would be it.  We had temperatures in the teens to low 20s, under brilliant blue skies with a light wind and nearly unlimited visibility.

Cog Railway Brake Man

At the summit, the rail cars' rainbow of colors made for a stark contract against the deep blue sky and Mother Nature provided her own artwork with the rime ice clinging to the exteriors of the buildings. Another thing that struck me during the trip is the unique geology of the mountain.  It falls somewhere in between the jagged peaks of the Rockies and the tree-covered summits more commonly found in New England.  After you get to a certain elevation, it transforms into a barren rock-covered surface with little vegetation.  While the descent of the mountain was rather anticlimactic, the rest of my stay was very nice.

Rime ice on summit building

Mountain geology

Brilliant colors of the Cog Railway

Throughout the week we had meetings in the Grand Ballroom and networking in the Rosebrook Bar, overlooking the mountains and The Cave, a prohibition-era speakeasy that was a gathering point for many people.  It was easy to see how The Cave got it's name.  The entrance is a narrow stone and brick archway.  Entering the bar, you almost feel like you should be giving a secret knock or password to get in.  It did not take much imagination to envision this as a speakeasy with its brick floor and arched ceilings and bar tucked away in the back room.

I didn't use the spa or pool because that's sometimes difficult to do during a business meeting.  A group of us did try to sit outside by one of the fire pits in the evening, but were politely prompted to go back inside by hotel security because there had been bear sightings in the back yard of the hotel the night before.

Prior to my departure, I made a point of walking the halls of every floor, just to say I did.  There have been numerous stories of hauntings in the hotel, and while nothing unusual happened to me, just strolling the halls gave me a strange sense of being part of the hotel's history as I thought about all the people who would stay in this place long after I've gone.

I don't know if there's any irony that this hotel was built by a man who made his money in coal mining and railroads.  The coal industry is struggling and many of the tracks that once transported passengers to this little piece of Eden lay idle.  Yet this hotel is going strong.

Perhaps one day, my family will get back for a leisure trip, but for now, it was a privilege to stay in this distinctive historic property.

Back porch of the hotel