Harkness Canyon Exploration

Yesterday Ethan had the day off from school and wanted an "adventure". I've been wanting to check out Harkness Canyon for climbing possibilities and had heard of a small amount of activity up there. So the "adventure" was on.

I've never been to the canyon before and was unclear on how to approach the cliffs up high. You can't drive to the end of the road due to private property. It is really unfortunate because these cliffs are way up there, at about 7,200' and the road is at 6,200' which would already make for quite the vertical haul if you were able to drive to the end of the road. But for now, (as far I as I could tell,) you have to hike the Boundary Trail which adds considerable more time as it meanders on switchbacks to accommodate mechanized vehicles (4 wheelers, dirt bikes). Even being unfamiliar to the area, I'd imagine that the land owner isn't going to change their mind just for climbers.

Nonetheless, I was blown away at the size, angles and, as far as I could tell, quality of limestone. I'm getting pretty good at being able to eye from afar what is decent limestone and what isn't in eastern Idaho and from what I could see, Harkness could deliver some seriousness…maybe too much!



Ethan did great on the hike in and out. He did take a mean header though as we were booking it out of there to get off the exposed ridge when the storm cell I had been keeping my eye on decided to switch directions and come straight at us with much fury. This morning his knee is banged up and swollen but he's a trooper and still wants to get back out there.

I hope I'm not stepping on anyone's toes by writing about Harkness but maybe there's a way to work with the land owner to allow a climber's trail that discretely winds it way through their property while staying out of view. The amount of good moderate-to-hard climbing possibilities there seem to warrant looking into it at least. The only thing is though is you still have to deal with the 1,000' uphill approach. Time to buy a lama.