Yesterday I had another fun Harphan experience. There seemed to be a few other groups up the trail as well. There were bootprints and dog prints up the trail quite a ways. And before I go further, I have to say one thing...the trail is nothing like on the map - way more switchbacks, the view area that is in old pictures of the trail is nowhere to be found on today's trail, and the new re-route of the trail is horribly designed. I don't think I've ever found a longer trail to go such a short distance. The length of the switchbacks is ridiculous and unnecessary. You could see several places where the "old" trail existed, and it made much more sense! Not only that, but when they made this "new" re-route, they did not even properly rehab the old trail. It is blatantly obvious in places, mournfully calling out to you and defending the trail-design skills of it's maker.
Anyway...perhaps it just annoyed me especially as I seemed to have a bit of a stomach flu/fever yesterday and was not exactly up to speed. I had hoped to canyoneer the whole of Harphan creek yesterday, but due to feeling ill and then hitting lots of icy snow up top, decided against it. Instead I just headed back down the trail and cut down to get some good photos of the main falls on Harphan - better name coming soon... Getting down from the top of that falls turned out to be a piece of cake. And it is in my opinion, one of the most elegant waterfalls in the Gorge - the upper tiers at least.
Here are a few photos from the trip. To get the view photos I had to go off trail. While there are a few good glimpses through trees, there are no good clear view sights from the trail itself.
Here is a photo of where I would call the official base of this multi-tiered waterfall. It is a nice 25 ft, low angle segment, choked with debris, but is only a hint of what lies out of view above.
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