Mt. Washington Auto Road — Base Gate

The Auto Road is a private toll road that begins at the base gate on NH-16 in Pinkham Notch — confirmed by the official site at 12 miles north of Jackson and 8 miles south of Gorham. The road climbs 7.6 miles from 1,527 feet to the 6,288-foot summit of Mount Washington, the highest peak in the Northeast, at an average grade of 12%. There are no guardrails. About one mile of the upper road is hard-packed gravel rather than pavement, and the surface narrows in places to where oncoming vehicles must take turns passing. The road closes whenever the Auto Road management determines weather or conditions are unsafe — high winds and wet pavement can shut it to motorcycles specifically, independent of whether the road is open to other traffic. Check road status before you leave; summit conditions routinely differ from what you find at the gate.

For riders, the descent is the part that demands the most planning. The official FAQ advises against riding your brakes continuously — a pumping action keeps them cooler — and notes that turnouts are available along the road to stop and let brakes recover. The road's own records document that brake failure has caused at least one serious incident on the descent. Riders on bikes with high-mounted exhausts have caused pavement fires when overheated brake components make contact; this is a known, documented hazard on this road, not a hypothetical one. Arrive with fresh brake fluid, know your bike's exhaust routing, and treat every turnout as a tool.

At the summit, the Sherman Adams building provides a visitor center and shelter — useful because temperatures at the top can run 20–30 degrees colder than at the gate, with wind that operates at a different scale than anything riders typically encounter on the approach via NH-16. The season runs mid-May through late October, but individual days can close without warning. The road has been in operation since 1861 and is described by its own operator as the oldest continuously operating man-made tourist attraction in the United States.