Mizpe Ramon Things to Do

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At Mitzpe Ramon you have, of course, the Ramon Crater, or Maktesh as it is called in Hebrew.
Enjoy an evening on a jeep trip along the bottom of the crater, it is many, many kilometers long. But the best part is the last minutes of the daylight when the sun progresses westward on its journey. If you are lucky and have some clouds to get lit up from below by the suns last rays, even better.

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Just at the city's southern border you can find the Maktesh Rimon visitors center. From there you have a perfect viewing station to see some of the sights from the crater rim. While it cannot compare to the Grand Canyon for sheer size, it does have its own beauty.
We took Polona (Oja) with her husband Igor and son Marko to see, but it was a very dusty day (to be expected sometimes in the desert)...but we had better luck with Malena when she came to visit, it was an almost perfectly clear day.

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On our way from the Dead Sea to Eilat, we took this one - breathtaking landscapes!
Mitzpe Ramon's biggest sight is the Ramon Crater, 500 meters deep, 40 kilometers long, 10 kilometers at its widest, and claimed to be the largest in the world. This is not, however, an asteroid impact site: just a particularly large asymmetrical hole dug out of the ground by natural processes of erosion. The Ramon Crater is the largest of three Negev craters, containing geological formations unlike those you would see anywhere else in the world. Together with a magnificent panorama, it presents a fascinating story of geomorphologic evolution.

The Ramon Crater is the largest amongst the three craters of the Negev, shich makes it the largest in the world... These craters were not created by meteorites but are a unique geological phenomenon, not to be found anywhere else in the world.

The entire crater is a geological park with such sites as the "sawmill", the ammonites wall with is fossils and several hiking trails.

Looking over the edge into the crater you can see that dark pyramid shape, that is the "Devil's Workshop" where the stone is a dark color that makes it stand out in the lighter colors of the surrounding desert. Here you will find eight sided stones that have split along the sides giving you an affect as if a giant had been cutting wood and this was the pile of cut wood discarded to the side....this is easily accessed by car, or you can walk the path down the cliff face.

This one is the lower pools and the waterfall where we have stop and rested after we came down from the hiking till half way.
It can be quite nice and relaxing there unless if you arrive in a day when School classes kids has arrived as well.... Should i say more...... ???!!!

One important thing: Bathing in pools is absolutely FORBIDDEN !

There's a two options for hiking in this Canyon:
1. Is the short and easy one which can take between 1-2 walking hours.
Actually we did it though i think that it could be interesting to do the longer one but i was the minority so i did the Fatty's rout.
We have went from the lower entrance up to the middle way just to watch the cayon from above but we didn't go up in the ropes towards the top of the Canyon, then we came back in the same way but we went down towards the pools and the waterfall where we sat down to rest a bit and enjoy this place.

2. The second option is harder, you basicaly do the same as we did in the first rout but you just go on towards the top of the canyon (and the upper parking lot) and that should take you aprx 2- 3 walking hours. BUT, There's a catch here, once you arrive the upper parking lot you need to find the way to get back to the lower parking lot to take your car.... so thats a rout that is better to do when there are two cars and someone is not hiking with you and can wait in the upper parking lot to pick you up.

Yes ... this are ibex's ... and you have pretty good chance to see them when you're hiking, The Ibex's are quite common in the negev area (as well as in the Judean mountains in the dead sea area and the hills around Eilat)

If you see them please keep quiet, dont try to get too close to them nor run after them or anything else.