アルワバクレーター-マッカ州

Beautiful place, free to enter but you cannot go down to the crater. It has a few shaded spots perfect for picnic.

After the drive from Jeddah, we parked in the carpark and walked to the edge to take photos. The crater is very impressive in person! I had thought I would be upset that you can no longer walk down into it but I didn't actually feel a need to do that when I saw how steep the sides are and how far down it is. I was quite happy to walk around the edge of the crater. We then set off driving to the right of the carpark around the crater where you could see car tracks until we got close to opposite the car park but further back from the edge. We set up camp for the night on the flat areas here close to the lava fields. Note the ground is quite hard so you need good pegs! The lava fields themselves are also very interesting with lots of fissures and flow marks created when the lava cooled and set. The next day, when we drove out, the helpful person who is based on site let us put our rubbish there.

Nice place. You can camp around the crater, but like someone mentioned after two young men died there , its no longer allowed to track down the crater. If you want to go all the way down, you have to take permission from Ministry Tourism in Taif, and also medically fit to do the track. There is also a kind watchman who minds the place, and lets you use his restroom. Nice experience if you like starry night.

A quiet and beautiful place. We were the only people there for sunset. The local police came to check on us to make sure we were ok or if we needed anything, and we chatted. They asked what country we were from :) We ended up camping nearby. There were some cute local dogs that played near our campsite at night but they were friendly and happy and never caused mischief.

Very scenic crater! Unfortunately the trail was closed, patrol car told us there were some deaths in the past few days. Visitor center and toilets are also closed. We walked part of the way around the crater towards the trailhead, left of the car park.