The Dana Reserve is Jordan's largest nature reserve. It starts at the village of Dana and extends down into the valley below. We did a 2-hour guided hike in it but we barely scratched the surface of the hiking that's there, not to mention activities like mountain biking, canyoning, bird watching, etc that can also be done there. Our guide told us that he had just returned from leading a group of Germans on a 3-day hike from Dana to Petra - lots of opportunities for hiking in Jordan for sure.
All we basically did was wander down towards the valley for a bit, then we turned around and walked up the water channels to the top of the hill (mountain?) where the water source was. Not a huge hike, but it was pretty steep.
The first picture below is us before we started, and the second is a picture looking down into the valley that the reserve extends down into.
Some pictures from our hike. I'd say about 50% of the time we were off-trail just trying to avoid pricker bushes and bees' nests. All around the water channel the vegetation is green and dense; elsewhere it's sparse and easy to get around.
Martin following our guide up to the top:
Some pictures of the village of Dana, where we started and ended. The last picture shows a bit of the nice view you have from Dana.
If you're in the area and enjoy hiking, Dana is definitely worth a visit. My issue with our hike was that I wanted to see a sand cat on this trip and in order to see one you have to take at least a full-day hike into Dana to get to where sand cats live. And we just didn't have time for that. Next time I will be on a mission to see a sand cat.
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