Today (23 September 2012) we decided to visit the Ein Avedat National Park. It's located near Sde Boker, the desert home of Ben Gurion (and his burial place), in the Negev Desert. Its important feature is the deep canyon formed by a sudden drop of Nakhal Tzin (the Tzin Stream), an important stream (dry unless it has just rained, of course!) that drains much of the norther Negev and eventually ends of at the southern end of the Dead Sea.
There are 2 entrances to the park, and we went in both of them. We started with the one that enters the canyon by a switchback road from Ben Gurion's tomb, reaching the bottom of the canyon where Nakhal Hawarim flows into Nakhal Tzin. Here's a view looking of the canyon from the top switchback.
The road then follows the stream a short distance to a parking lot. From there, you must walk to go further up the canyon. Here's the view up the canyon from the parking lot.
Here's another view from the parking lot, looking up at an overhang on the south canyon wall.
We walked a short distance up a nice dusty but smooth trail. Here's a nice view from a little further up the canyon.
After our short walk, we drove back up the way we came in, ate lunch at the Avedat Aroma (along the highway just below the Nabatean city of Avedat, which is another national park), and then went in the upper entrance, not far from there. After a very short drive from the highway, we reached the parking lot. This time, David stayed in the car, and it was a good thing, because the trails up there were generally NOT very smooth, and there were quite a few stone steps, as well.
As I made my way to the canyon, I spotted this ibix also heading towards the canyon.
Here's the view looking down the canyon from the lower viewpoint, which is the one nearest the parking lot.
Here's the view up the canyon from the same viewpoint.
Here's a view looking almost straight down at the bottom of the canyon.
As I was enjoying the views from this viewpoint (which is actually on a broad rock ledge 2 or 3 meters below the level of the canyon rim), another visitor told me to look up, and here's the ibix that I saw up on the rim of the canyon. This is just the best of about 5 or 6 pictures that I got of him! Isn't he magnificent! Check out those horns!
After I came back up from that viewpoint, I saw a trail going parallel to the canyon (but a ways from it) in the upstream direction. I followed it to another viewpoint, located right at the beginning of the canyon. Just as I came to it, I saw this beautiful dragonfly sitting on a cable. It just sat there patiently, and so I had time to get a good picture of it.
This next picture is a view of the stream BEFORE it plunges into the canyon. It's a little hard to get the scale, but the walls here can't be more than 2 or 3 meters high. But this picture was taken from a point not more than a few meters from where this stream plunges into the canyon.
Here's the view the OTHER direction! There were a couple of cables and a sign warning about an abyss ahead, but I was no more than a couple of meters from the edge, I think. Very dramatic!
I easily walked across the stream to the other side and got this view, which only gives a hint of the canyon. Near the center, you can see the railing protecting people on the upper viewpoint from falling into the canyon.
Here's the view from that upper viewpoint.
As you can tell, I had a marvelous time and really enjoyed this trip. I must thank David for waiting so patiently for me in the car, especially since he didn't get the pleasure of seeing ANY of this.
