Although this trail is listed as Easy in some publications, that's not really the case. It doesn't climb much overall, but the multiple creek crossings, sparse blazes, and wilderness character make the hike take its toll. Starting from the parking area on Brown Mountain Beach Road, the trail winds up some poorly-constructed switchbacks onto an eroded old road bed. The trail then merges with a less-eroded old road at the top of the climb, in a gap. There is an intersection with the Yellow Buck trail; continue straight, downhill. The trail is relatively easy from here, except for a few places where erosion has made it a steep drop-off into the creek. The trail passes through a campsite as it approaches the creek and angles left, uphill.
From here, the path is co-signed as the Mountains to Sea Trail. Again, it follows an old roadbed with some washouts descending all the way to the creek - these can be tricky. The trail veers right again as it nears Harper Creek Falls - stay straight on a side path on the old road bed to reach the falls (requiring a steep rope-assist scramble to get to the base). After climbing past the falls, the trail follows the creek upstream on the right side to the intersection with the North Harper Creek Trail. The Mountains to Sea Trail leaves along that path.
The Harper Creek trail crosses the creek, and proceeds to do so several more times as it goes up toward South Harper Creek Falls. This section of trail is remote and it can be difficult to follow at times, especially at crossings. As it approaches the base of the falls, it heads uphill on some switchbacks. There is an intersection with the side path connecting to the Raider Camp trail. The Harper Creek trail then climbs up past the settlement of Kawana before ending on Kawana Road.
KML is the main file type used by Google Earth. If you have Google Earth installed, clicking the KML link should open the trail or point directly
in Google Earth for viewing. This is the native file format used by Google Earth, but many other map applications can use and understand KML as well,
so if you're not sure which one to download, KML is a good bet.
GPX
The GPX format stands for GPS Exchange - a free, open, XML format for exchanging GPS and map data. GPX is compatible with Google Earth,
many other mapping programs, and most GPS devices (such as Garmin). Load the file directly into your GPS to help find your way on your next trip!
GeoJSON
GeoJSON is a newer, lightweight data exchange format which can be used to quickly share map data and may have a smaller size than KML or GPX. Many
professional mapping and GIS applications support the GeoJSON format.
About the Map
Copyright
Base Layers
Base layers provided by Google, MyTopo.com and Microsoft Research (MSR) Maps. Base layer images are subject to
the respective copyright policies of their owners.
Trail and Marker Overlays
Trail layers and downloadable data are all original works created by WNCOutdoors with guidance from a variety of
sources, including ensembles of our own GPS tracks, user contributed GPS tracks, official maps and GIS data from
government agencies, and field observations. WNCOutdoors data is made freely available under the
Open Database License - you are free to copy and use
it for any purpose unde the terms of that license (summary).
Tips
The map will scroll and zoom, just like a normal Google Map.
Click MyTopo to use a USGS topographic maps as the base layer.
Hover over a trail to see it highlighted. Helps to see start and end points for an individual trail.
Click a trail for more details and to download it.
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