Yehudiya Nature Reserve

On one of our last days in Tiberias, we visited Yehudiya Nature Reserve.  There's supposed to be a really cool trail along the Yehudiya river which is kind of like canyoneering/via ferrata.  There's hiking, but then there are more fun areas that have metal hand holds to assist you through.  In one spot you have to jump off a 15 ft cliff into the water and swim across to the other side, then continue down ladders, etc.  Its safe, its a marked trail, ok?  Unfortunately, there was a huge rock slide that blocked a lot of the trail, so it was closed.  So, we decided to follow the Zavitan river trail, which ended up being an unexpected delight!

We hiked through what felt like the desert, though the northern climate allows for much more flora than Southern Israel.  We passed what seemed like miles of old stone dwellings and rock piles of ruined cities.  It was about 90 degrees F, the sun was beating down on us, and there was very little shade.  We started descending huge, natural rock steps until we came to an iron ladder that was drilled into the rock.  We climbed down the ladder and the trail began to narrow.  We crossed over a little creak and ducked beneath branches of trees and flowers.  We heard sounds that I thought were wild pigs snorting, but then Jeremy spotted our friend the hyrax!  The trail lead us beneath a kind of open cavern, and there was a large, stagnant green pool, full of fish!  You wouldn't know where to go unless someone pointed the way, but we used our climbing skills to climb up over the rock, away from the stagnant pool and as we crested over the rock, we saw a beautiful waterfall flowing down into a large, clear pool, where hikers jumped in to cool off from the hot day!  There were flowers around the waterfall that made us feel like we were in Hawaii.  The hidden waterfall grotto felt magical!

The fish, which I was kind of scared of.  I don't actually like swimming so close to fish.  

Jeremy went in with a splash!

The cool, spring water felt so unbelievably refreshing after hiking in the heat.

Jeremy and I swam over to the waterfall and let the cold water rain down on us.

Reluctantly, we left the hidden waterfall grotto, climbed up out of the cavern, and continued our hike.  We happened upon a tree with a giant boulder entwined in its huge branches.  How many hundreds of years has this tree and rock been here?  How much history has this tree seen?

Jeremy bested this tree by climbing high up into its branches!  This tree was also a great spot for us to eat lunch in the shade!

We continued our hike, which took us down approx. 400 stone stairs into the valley, along the Zavitan stream, with little waterfalls and many pools to stop, swim, and cool off.  Afterward, we climbed the same amount of stairs back up out of the valley, to conclude about 5 hours and 7 miles of hiking.

When parts of the hiking trail are too difficult to do without aid, there are iron hand-holds along the way to assist you.

Here Jeremy is by some of the pools we passed as we hiked along the Zavitan stream.

A beautiful place and a wonderful new adventure!  20% of Israel is protected as a nature reserve or national park.  There are 190 nature reserves and 66 national parks in a country the size of New Jersey!  Spectacular!