Hatta mountain sign hike
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 7.24 mi
- Elevation gain
- 686 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Easy
- Elevation loss
- 686 ft
- Max elevation
- 1,271 ft
- TrailRank
-
57
4
- Min elevation
- 679 ft
- Trail type
- Loop
- Moving time
- 2 hours 25 minutes
- Time
- 5 hours 39 minutes
- Coordinates
- 2104
- Uploaded
- May 14, 2020
- Recorded
- May 2020
near Şufayrī, Ajman (United Arab Emirates)
Viewed 20087 times, downloaded 391 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
This is an improvised hike to Hatta mountain sign. I haven't followed any exact route that is marked at Hatta's wadi hub but I have crossed a few different paths along the way that are marked as red, blue, or green trails. Green is considered easy, while blue is medium and red a bit more challenging. However, I would still rate this hike as easy for a fit person, and moderate for someone less experienced. Nevertheless, once in nature, everyone has to take safety measurements and evaluate their own abilities.
In this hike, I took my own way towards Hatta sign, shortcutting through the mountain (good leg workout). Few marked trails I crossed are in a quite bad condition (might be after seasonal rains) thus have to be mindful of lots of loose rocks, other than that paths are easy to follow.
This trail offers beautiful views of Hatta from the higher vantage point. It goes all the way up to Hatta mountain sign (shortcutted way, faster but probably not an easier way). The beginning and end of the hike is just an easy stroll along with one of the green Hatta hiking trails.
Please ignore that crazy straight line-wikiloc stopped working and recorded this straight line. The real distance is about 6 to 7 kilometers not 11km.
Waypoints
Photo
928 ft
1. Sheik Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum Dam
I have parked at Sheik Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum Dam. Although there is proper parking available at Hatta Wadi Hub. I parked here because I planned to reach Hatta mountain sign and come back the same way, which later I changed into a loop.
Photo
1,037 ft
2. Left turn next to this sign
Once you reach this signpost, look for a small path turning left into the mountain. First I went straight following the dirt road, but soon realized it is taking me away from my Hatta sign goal.
Photo
1,194 ft
3. Views of Hatta
There is no connection shown on the map between point 3 and 4, but just follow the trail up. Wikiloc stopped and "messed up" the recording.
Photo
1,159 ft
4. Signpost higher up the mountain
Continue following the trail to the left up the mountain until you reach another sign post.
Photo
1,066 ft
7. Detour toward hiking sign
I have left the official trail and climbed up towards Hatta sign. The climb is not that complicated just there is no path, but the incline of the hill isn't steep so it is very doable if you have hiking experience and want a good leg workout.
Photo
1,163 ft
9. Nearly there
The climb is short, it took me probably around 10 minutes of slow climbing to get up to the sign after I left the official trail.
Photo
1,251 ft
10. Hatta mountain sign
Once I reached the sign, it turned out that there are official trails going all the way up to the sign (probably easier ones) but it was quite fun to take a shortcut and find yourself in a little adventure of climbing the raw mountain.
Photo
1,170 ft
11. Followed the narrow trail to the right
There will an option to decline through a wide dirt road which is used for mountain karts, you should see a bunch of tires stacked on top of each other. However, I chose to follow one of the trails to my right behind the Hatta sign. It gave an extra beautiful view before I started to climb down the mountains.
Photo
1,034 ft
13. Trickier part
Here I lost the sight of a trail I was following. I have a feeling it was destroyed by rains and although it might be still there, everything looks like a scree slope. So I just continued going around the mountain sticking to it and aiming to climb down later.
Photo
966 ft
14. Dirt road
It was an easy climb down from point 13, just very rocky, here I reached a very clear wide dirt road which is now super easy to follow.
Photo
798 ft
15. Mountain Carts
The dirt road with tires all around apparently is used for mountain carts.
Photo
714 ft
17. Some creepy looking bridge on the way back
On the way back you will be following the green marked track- just an easy stroll without any spectacular views but lots of birds around.
Comments (16)
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Hi Ausra. What’s the best time to do this hike? Can you recommend any easy to moderate hike that is scenic and can be done in the morning please.
Hi @Deepa Vaswani, this hike, as most of the hikes in the UAE , is best done in the morning or in the evening for cooler weather. I would advise checking Shawka Dam to Pools hike, or Al Rabi trail for easy to moderate options and fantastic views. Please check my blog (link above in the description of this hike) where I have detailed instructions about the other Hatta hike and also Shawka and Al Rabi. You just have to scroll down the page to find more posts. Hope that helps :)
That’s amazing. Thanks for the quick response. Will definitely check out your blog.
Ausra I am not seeing an indication to your link in the description. Could you mention it here again please. Thanks.
I have followed this trail verified View more
Information
Easy to follow
Scenery
Easy
Great trail. The first part and the middle part was detour. We followed the first part and later we choose to follow the trail.
Can dogs do this hike?
Yes, this hike should be doable for dogs
Thank you Ausra
I have followed this trail View more
Information
Easy to follow
Scenery
Moderate
Great trail, we got tired so dropped down off the mountain early to a fence line then followed that to the Yellow to get back to the car. Did the route in reverse.
Is there parking area at the start of the hike
I parked close to the dam. If you follow this map, gps will bring you to the starting point. You can also park at Hatta Hub and hike from there, but it will be slightly different route
Hi Ausra, are you supposed to cross through the gates of the Hatta Mountain Carts? Back in Februari I tried to do the Hatta Sign hike the other way around (using a different wikiloc trail) starting at the Wadi Hub and we couldn't get through those gates so gave up and just wandered around a bit. Would love to do this trail one time for real however. Any tips on how to pass those gates? On your photograph they appear to be closed and locked as well so wonder how you got through.
btw. what I remember from the dirt track behind those Hatta Mountain Cart gates is that it is now covered in asfalt? Or am I totally mistaken and do I remember a different set of gates?
I checked on Google Earth, which still shows a dirt track. But the last available imagery there is from march 2018, so quite out of date.
HI Maarten, when I did this hike, I didn't have to cross any gates.. I did from the dam by the bridge, not from Hatta Hub, but passed the kart dirt track, and there were no gates at that time, so can;t advice on this...
oh, I see what you mean Maarten, these gates weren't a problem, I didn not have to enter them..it should be straightforward..
I have followed this trail View more
Information
Easy to follow
Scenery
Moderate
Trail leads through a restricted area resulting in a diversion.