Wadi Rum

(be sure to open this post in a new tab so you can appreciate the colors and see the video)

Wadi Rum, also known as the Valley of the Moon, is a protected desert area in southern Jordan.

On our drive in, we had a welcoming committee -

One of their buddies was at the community watering hole -

There are no roads, so you are picked up by a Bedouin in a 4 x 4, and driven around to the sites, as well as to your tent camp.

If you enlarge the picture above, you can see 2 camps up against the rocks.

There are some canyons or crevices with greenery that we hiked into…

…to see petroglyphs. (our guide didn’t speak much English, so we didn’t learn too many details about the sites we stopped at)

Some of the rock walls on the way in looked like they were melting -

We hiked up and over an arch, to get spectacular 360 degree views -

The red sand everywhere was gorgeous, and made even more striking when compared to pale areas.

Another interesting hike we were sent on, was a bit daunting. Our guide dropped us off at the opening of a canyon, and said to follow it for about 20 minutes, and he’d pick us up on the other end. (what???)

We were hoping that the correct path was the sandy one off to the right…

… and happily, we came out the other end, sandy and hot, but successful.

Our guide said there are about 100 tent camps scattered through the desert, but very few are open right now, due to lack of tourists. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any specific pictures of the Bedouin tent camp that we spent the night in (with a handful of 20-somethings), but you can see the tops of most of the tents, in this picture I took in the early morning:

We did a super touristy thing of a camel ride in the desert at sunrise. It was actually quite fun, as the coolness was nice, and the changing light was neat to see. Our trusty steeds:

Watching them unfolding was interesting, but riding them while they stood up was pretty “rocky” (make sure you have your sound up to hear the camel grumbling) -

Yes, I’m still into shadow pictures -

Wind carved rocks in early morning:

Goodbye from the desert!