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Harper Canyon to Harper Flat

hikerdmb

Posts: 423

11/20/2011

hikerdmb

Posts: 423

I have been to Harper Flat many times over the years, but never this way. When I did the hike to the Harper Cabin a couple of weeks ago, I looked across the flat to the top of Harper Canyon. That is when I decided to try this trip, since I had never hiked into the flat from that canyon. I started near the Cactus Garden south of Highway 78. The turn off to the Cactus Garden is on the opposite side of the highway and just east of the turn off to Butte Pass. There was lots of traffic on the way out to this part of the desert but once I turned off the highway I did not see another person until I got back to the highway about 5 hours later.

Here is the view up toward the entrance of Harper Canyon from just off Highway 78.

I had to park right near the point where the road drops down into the wash coming out of Harper Canyon. The road gets pretty rough after this and I knew my big truck wouldn't be able to get much closer than this point.

My hike started in the wide wash and I walked quite a way until I got to the entrance to the canyon.

Harper Canyon starts out pretty wide and full of ironwood trees.

After a couple of miles the canyon begins to narrow and the walls steepen.

There are also some pretty rugged side canyons coming into the main canyon.

The canyon continues to narrow and becomes more and more scenic.

Most of this hike is easy walking on a sandy wash but there are several places along the way where it get steeper and some scrambling is neccessary to make your way farther up the canyon. There are also some areas with evidence of recent rockfall. A huge boulder has fallen and blocked the canyon floor except for an 18 inch wide crack on the east side that you can squeeze through.
Here is the boulder looking down the canyon.

This is an up close view of the way through. Notice the different colors where chips were broken off when the rock fell.

The areas just before and after the huge boulder are some of the roughest sections of this hike. Once passed the choke stone though you will know you are just about to Harper Flat.

After almost 2 hours of hiking, climbing, and scrambling I made it to Harper Flat. This is the view from the top of a rock outcropping in the flat looking across to Whale Peak.

I spent a few minutes snacking and enjoying the view before turning around and heading back down the canyon. Here is the view looking back towards the top of Harper Canyon.

Heading down the canyon was much easier and also there were some great views looking north toward the Santa Rosa Mountains.

Finally here is a map of my route. It turned out to be a little over 4 miles in each direction with an elevation gain of about 1,300 feet.

edited by hikerdmb on 11/20/2011
edited by hikerdmb on 11/20/2011
<em>edited by hikerdmb on 11/21/2011</em>

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Harper Canyon to Harper Flat