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Guides
10 long-form guides to Harpers Ferry, each one signed and dated so you can see how current it is. They answer the questions that do not fit on a listings page: how the place is laid out, what you will actually be charged for, and which trade-offs are worth making.
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The colour reaches the ridge tops before it reaches the streets, the crowd arrives at eleven, and on the first weekend of November the last bus back moves ninety minutes earlier overnight.
Guide
The colour reaches the ridge tops before it reaches the streets, the crowd arrives at eleven, and on the first weekend of November the last bus back moves ninety minutes earlier overnight.
9 min readEmmett Coyle
Guides
Guide
The platform is inside the national historical park. No lot, no shuttle, no hill. The catch is that the commuter timetable runs the wrong way for a day-tripper, and the workaround is worth knowing.
9 min readPrudence Ashby
Guide
The lower town has nowhere to leave a car. Park at 171 Shoreline Drive off US 340, pay at the entrance station, and ride the bus down. The last bus back is the only deadline that matters.
8 min readPrudence Ashby
Guide
The river peaks in spring, the colour in October, the thru-hikers in May, and the shuttle clock changes in November. No month is best for all four. Pick the one that matches why you are coming.
9 min readPrudence Ashby
Guides
Guide
The lower town read in geographical order tells the story backwards. Here is the day arranged chronologically instead, from the armoury grounds at nine to Jefferson Rock at dusk.
9 min readLoretta Sims
Guide
Twenty-two men seized a federal armoury on a Sunday night in October 1859. Thirty-six hours later it was over. The argument it started took another six years and 600,000 lives to finish.
10 min readLoretta Sims
Guide
A town of 269 people where two rivers and three states meet, and most of the streets are a national park. Three unrelated crowds arrive here every weekend. Work out which one you are first.
9 min readPrudence Ashby
Guides
Guide
The overlook everyone photographs is a thousand feet above the town, with no water on the way up and a descent that is harder than the ascent. Know the numbers before you start.
9 min readEmmett Coyle
Guide
The town sits in a bowl with high ground on three sides. You are either on a level towpath or climbing a thousand feet, and there is very little in between. Choose accordingly.
9 min readEmmett Coyle
Guides
Guide
Cobbles, stone steps and a thousand-foot ridge on three sides. The flat walking is across a footbridge reached by stairs. Here is which parts of this actually work with children.
8 min readPrudence Ashby