Merhav Am Loop Trail
Negev - Near Sde Boker, March 15th 2015
![]() The hike was perfect for this time of year. The desert was in bloom, the sky was blue and the rains had filled water holes that will be bone dry a few months from now. The hike is 27 km long, has a big descent and ascent and in parts requires scrambling boulders in a dry river bed. It's perfect if you only have one car and are looking for a challenging day trip. With two 4x4 vehicles you can cut it down to a 15-20 km hike by leaving one car at the bottom of Sde Boker in Nahal Tsin but then you'd be deprived of a 300 m climb out of the wadi.
Getting there - The hike starts from a dirt road half a km east of the yeshuv of Merhav Am on road 204. This is about 5 or 6 km east of Sde Boker. Merhav Am is a very sweet religious Zionist yeshuv. If you are making this a day hike and want to start your day at a Beit Knesset you should give them a call the day before to get the details. They have put an eruv up over a huge area surrounding the yeshuv. It would probably be a great place to spend Shabbat in the desert. |
If you are loking for a place to stay in Midreshet ben Gurion, I recommend that you stay at the Krivine Guest House. It is really wonderful there.