Wadi Naqab to wadi Koob to Al Sanat village hike Ras Al Khaimah, UAE
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 8.64 mi
- Elevation gain
- 1,690 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Moderate
- Elevation loss
- 1,690 ft
- Max elevation
- 2,365 ft
- TrailRank
-
70
4.5
- Min elevation
- 819 ft
- Trail type
- Loop
- Moving time
- 5 hours 17 minutes
- Time
- 9 hours 48 minutes
- Coordinates
- 2519
- Uploaded
- February 9, 2021
- Recorded
- January 2021
near Yinas, Raʼs al Khaymah (United Arab Emirates)
Viewed 16683 times, downloaded 596 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
Lots of bouldering along the way, seasonal pools, narrow gorge, steep climb up and down to ancient Al Sanat village. Some balconies and ledges, and ropes added for assistance-nothing major or technical but need to be taken into consideration.
NOTE1:Begginers skip WP3 and continue walking in the wadi till WP6. WP3-WP5 is a balcony walk with no clear path to climb down, so if not experienced, just stick to the wadi.
NOTE2: skip WP10 to WP12 and head from WP9 to WP13. There is a way to Al Sanat village at WP10, but it is not clear, and it is better first to complete wadi koob part and head up from the end of wadi Koob, and return back down from the village to WP10.
Click the link below to my post with all the details about this beautiful hike. From the app www.theroadreel.com/best-uae-hikes-wadi-naqab
Waypoints
Car park
Waypoint
937 ft
WP3 - beginners continue straight following the wadi
We took the balcony on the left hand side and skipped lots of bouldering:)
Photo
Waypoint
1,032 ft
WP4 - some adventurous rock climbing
Nothing complicated but should be approached eith caution as there is no proper trail at this spot, you have to find your safe way around.
Waypoint
1,051 ft
WP5- start descending down here
From here we started decsending as it didnt look safe to continue hiking around the mountain face.
Waypoint
1,034 ft
WP 6-take balcony on the left
Look for the huge rock with arabic text in red, on your left you will see signs pointing to go higher up.
Waypoint
1,358 ft
WP 10-skip and head to WP 13
This trail goes to Al sanat village but font take, there will a better way up.
Waypoint
1,409 ft
WP11-skip and head to WP13
This trail goes to Al sanat village but font take, there will a better way up.
Waypoint
1,469 ft
WP12-skip and head to WP 13
This trail goes to Al sanat village but font take, there will a better way up.
Waypoint
1,387 ft
WP 13-after wp9 this is on the left
You will aproach white big flat rocks, look for the way higher up on your left.
Waypoint
1,429 ft
WP 16-head left side of the wadi on top of the rocks
Look for the way on your left
Waypoint
1,575 ft
WP 18- pool with water-turn back for Al Sanat village climb
From here turn back, Al Sanat village climb starts in 200 meters
Summit
Waypoint
2,104 ft
WP27-path down next to the ridge on the left
Head down, keeping thw ridgw with flag on the left
Waypoint
1,431 ft
WP28- reached the wadi, go left to complete the hike as you started
Going down tgis way was easier than finding the way up.
Comments (27)
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I have followed this trail View more
Information
Easy to follow
Scenery
Moderate
I completed this trail in late February (the temperature started at 23° and finished at 27°). It was sunny but not extremely hot. I drank 2L of water. It took me 3:40 hrs (lunch break included).
You can drive to the trailhead with a sedan.
Very nice and accurate description about this trail. Plus, it was nicely marked all the way.
There was just a little bit of water in the last pool of Wadi Koob. Overall, very beautiful hike!
I have followed this trail verified View more
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Easy to follow
Scenery
Moderate
Amazing trail
Thanks for the heavy info, I'm really so excited to go this trail on weekend, .. 😆😆
Dear Ausra...I am very excited to do this trail this weekend, but I am only going to do till the pink wall. How long did it take you to reach it?
Hi Mynameismean, not sure what you call pink wall, but if that is the red/orange wall, then it will be a very short hike. Should not take more than an hour to reach it if you park as far as you car can reach by your car. It is even less probably (taken you are not going on a balcony that leads behind the red wall
Oh yeah red wall 😄 Thank you for the info. Last question, is the first picture here the red wall?
Hey Mynameismean, the first picture is inside wadi koob, you have to hike there quite a bit, with bouldering and passing through balconies on the mountain. Please read my blog post that I shared here for full details: https://www.theroadreel.com/best-uae-hikes-wadi-naqab/
If you only want to go to the red wall, then in this post I describe how to get there. Note that parking now is much closer than I previously indicated in my post (they dug the road in the wadi): https://www.theroadreel.com/red-wall-hike-in-wadi-naqab/
I have followed this trail View more
Information
Easy to follow
Scenery
Moderate
Beautiful trail. The roped section on the way up to Al Sanat Village is scary if you don’t like heights and narrow ledges. There is also a short section there where you have to walk along a narrow ledge and there is no rope either.
Hi Eralyilmaz how was your hike on this trail? How many hours did it take you to finish the loop? Did you follow only wikiloc? Sorry for the questions, planning to go tomorrow with few friends.
Hey Ann, it should take you around 6 hours to complete the loop. Check my blog post here for all the info: https://www.theroadreel.com/best-uae-hikes-wadi-naqab/
Hey Ausra thanks for your reply.
I have followed this trail verified View more
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Done the loop to Al Sanat village. It was a good hike and challenging. One you should not underestimate. We finished the full loop till we back to our car at exactly 6hrs in total.
Well done Ann, I hope you enjoyed!
Hi ausra, I have did this trail till that big boulders and returned.
While walking on left I even saw the balcony which will bypass this boulders and going straight.
But I missed the the path to enter the balcony and I cannot find it, where is the route for balcony
Hi Meer, at the WP6, when walking through the wadi look out for a massive rock onnthe right which had arabic writing sprayed in red. At that point look to your left, you should be able to notice some other sprays pointing to the balcony you have to climb. If I remember I even saw proper metal signs placed higher up. Note that we climbed up another balcony almost immediately at the start of the hike. And then we had to climb down, and get on to the original balcony which passes the red wall. In the description I have mentioned that as well. All the balconies are on the left side of the wadi. I hope yiu can find it next timw:)
Thank you, today I found the balcony. But after some distance it was very narrow, so I returned and continued in wadi. I reached till big boulders, so cross this big boulders only way is to pass through balcony.?
I am assuming you call red wall the big boulders? as that is the place where there is no way to pass without additional equipment at least. So, to what I know, the only way to pass the red wall is through the balcony walk on the left-hand side. You don't need to reach the red wall in order to start the balcony walk. You just have to look for that big stone with Arabic writing. Have you read my blog post about this hike? maybe it will help you to find the correct balcony. t is narrow at part but not that narrow, you can easily walk around the mountain. The only thing that could potentially be difficult if a person suffers from fear of heights, otherwise it is not technical, and doable.
Thanks today I reached the balcony, but as i was alone and afraid I returned back.
Next time will go with group and complete it.
Hello, i am going tomorrow for this trail…my first hiking experience 👌..looking forward
Hi Maitha, this is brave of you (well my first hiking experience was Sheri Village which at that time was jumping straight into the complete wilderness with 0 hiking experience, but I made it safely up and back). Just be careful, and hope you are going with somebody who has done similar things before as this is not an easy hike.
Thanks Ausra. I am going along with my CrossFit coach…never hiked before but fit enough to go for it :) thxx again
Followed this trail. It had all the necessary details which made the hike much easier than what it should have been. Thanks Ausra!
Hi Ausra
Want to take a community Mosque group out here and level is BEGINNER/ EASY.
We did Rafisha To Suhub last weekend so want some relatively easier yet exciting hike especially for the kids and some slightly elder explorers.
This one looks like the ONE.
Where do you suggest we start and finish. Hike start time 6:30 - & want to be back in DUBAI by 2-3pm latest.
Hi Sajjad, for your event you could do part of this trail until Red Wall and back. it is not exactly an easy trail as it has lots of boulders along the way, although nothing extremely hug for the starting part. By following just the wadi to Red Wall should be doable for all age groups. You can park beyond the new dam, just keep on driving until you can with a sedan car, there will be also signs and boards indicating the trail. It should be 4 km hike in and out same way to the red wall.
Did the hike today. I found the entry for the way up to the village (WP19) but couldn't continue. No further ropes which sign the path or where to climb up like shown in WP20. We tried 3 ways but stopped as we had no idea, where to continue in a non familiar terrain. Rest of the hike was quite nice.
The rope only went up to waypoint 19, we couldn't figure out which way to go after, to way point 20, it was too hard without the rope. It was a shame we couldn't make it to the village, however the walk through the wadi was absolutely stunning
Hello. I'm thinking of doing this trek next winter with an overnight stay in a tent in the village, does anyone know a trusted guide or a group that would like to do the same thing?