Baqal Caves (Wadi Nahela) Hike. RAK.
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 4.57 mi
- Elevation gain
- 863 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Moderate
- Elevation loss
- 863 ft
- Max elevation
- 1,024 ft
- TrailRank
-
85
4.4
- Min elevation
- 196 ft
- Trail type
- Loop
- Moving time
- 2 hours 28 minutes
- Time
- 3 hours 34 minutes
- Coordinates
- 1301
- Uploaded
- August 27, 2021
- Recorded
- August 2021
near Baqal, Raʼs al Khaymah (United Arab Emirates)
Viewed 16899 times, downloaded 449 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
We a small group of friends hiked the Baqal Caves and its summit from Nahela Dam of Al Fahlain village in Wadi Naqab ,Ras al Khaimah.
My friend Hakim had hiked this trail and suggested to do this hike.
It proved to be a nice trail, and manageable for Beginner+ Grade in cooler times and with preparation, precautions and Hiking accessories.
My personal FB Page dedicated to UAE Hiking activities.
https://www.facebook.com/Patricks-Hikes-101251445547970
We hiked it during last week of August, a hot and humid month, so started the hike at 5am.
This is the ideal parking spot, away from the houses and village. The access is graded road and accessible by any cars.
You can search for "Nahela Dam" on Google maps.
25.670417, 56.047361
https://goo.gl/maps/9WMk5AF7VR4CVeri8
Please do not block any road or approach lanes as there are many habitated houses in this area.
The trail is small rocks Wadi and it goes up gradually until you reach the Caves area.
There are 4 caves in one area, they are not very deep but are interesting.
Later we climbed to higher elevation to reach the larger and bigger cave, but it is also not very deep. The path to this higher cave is bit moderate, exposed and needs manual scrambling. I dont think beginners should attempt this section.
In our case, Once we reached the Summit of the cave and the summit above it, we descended towards the Wadi from another side, connected to the Ascent Wadi and returned the same way that we had hiked.
What I suggest is to use our descent route from the summit to hiker up and down, so that scrambling can be avoided to ascend and descend from the summit.
Once you have visited the bottom caves, you can return back about 200 meters back on the valley and then hike up through another branch of the valley to reach the summit.
Overall, its a nice, short and interesting hike.
No Technical business and no big boulders.
Make sure you wear ankle support hiking boots and all other hiking related items and care. Hydration, Electrolytes, Lighting, Shade and other essential concerns should be taken care of.
**********************************************************************************
Do Not Try Any Mountain Hikes If You Do Not Understand The Mountain Terrains, Dangers From Wildlife, First Aid, Hydration And Snacks, Your Own Fitness, Remote Activity Preparations, Communication Tools, Mountain Geography, Topography, Risk Factors, HSE Requirements, Hiking Risks, Fitness Level Of The Group Members.
Study All Above Matters Well Before Following Any Trails That You Find Online. Please Do Not Over Estimate Yourself.
Better Be Safe Than Put Yourself / Group In Danger And Regret Later.
Lately We Have Seen A Lot Of Unwanted Hiking Incidents That Could Have Been Avoided With Better Preparation.
Wish You All The Best.
Wikiloc, Only For Reference. There Can Be Errors On The GPS Recording Due To GPS Jumping In The Wadi Sections or Erroneous Recording.
My friend Hakim had hiked this trail and suggested to do this hike.
It proved to be a nice trail, and manageable for Beginner+ Grade in cooler times and with preparation, precautions and Hiking accessories.
My personal FB Page dedicated to UAE Hiking activities.
https://www.facebook.com/Patricks-Hikes-101251445547970
We hiked it during last week of August, a hot and humid month, so started the hike at 5am.
This is the ideal parking spot, away from the houses and village. The access is graded road and accessible by any cars.
You can search for "Nahela Dam" on Google maps.
25.670417, 56.047361
https://goo.gl/maps/9WMk5AF7VR4CVeri8
Please do not block any road or approach lanes as there are many habitated houses in this area.
The trail is small rocks Wadi and it goes up gradually until you reach the Caves area.
There are 4 caves in one area, they are not very deep but are interesting.
Later we climbed to higher elevation to reach the larger and bigger cave, but it is also not very deep. The path to this higher cave is bit moderate, exposed and needs manual scrambling. I dont think beginners should attempt this section.
In our case, Once we reached the Summit of the cave and the summit above it, we descended towards the Wadi from another side, connected to the Ascent Wadi and returned the same way that we had hiked.
What I suggest is to use our descent route from the summit to hiker up and down, so that scrambling can be avoided to ascend and descend from the summit.
Once you have visited the bottom caves, you can return back about 200 meters back on the valley and then hike up through another branch of the valley to reach the summit.
Overall, its a nice, short and interesting hike.
No Technical business and no big boulders.
Make sure you wear ankle support hiking boots and all other hiking related items and care. Hydration, Electrolytes, Lighting, Shade and other essential concerns should be taken care of.
**********************************************************************************
Do Not Try Any Mountain Hikes If You Do Not Understand The Mountain Terrains, Dangers From Wildlife, First Aid, Hydration And Snacks, Your Own Fitness, Remote Activity Preparations, Communication Tools, Mountain Geography, Topography, Risk Factors, HSE Requirements, Hiking Risks, Fitness Level Of The Group Members.
Study All Above Matters Well Before Following Any Trails That You Find Online. Please Do Not Over Estimate Yourself.
Better Be Safe Than Put Yourself / Group In Danger And Regret Later.
Lately We Have Seen A Lot Of Unwanted Hiking Incidents That Could Have Been Avoided With Better Preparation.
Wish You All The Best.
Wikiloc, Only For Reference. There Can Be Errors On The GPS Recording Due To GPS Jumping In The Wadi Sections or Erroneous Recording.
Waypoints
Intersection
206 ft
Summit
Comments (40)
You can add a comment or review this trail
Nice trail thanks
Did you Hike there ?
Yes it was great
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Thanks Patrick for the amazing trail. We did the trail up to the 1st set of caves as a group of 8 adults and 3 kids with the smallest one being 5yrs old. It was a fun trail and easily managed and enjoyed by all.
Dear Leslie,
I'm glad that my trail was helpful for you and your group enjoyed the hike well.
I appreciate the fact that you introduced a young kid into hiking. Great deed.
Enjoy Hiking.
Can beginners do it?
Can sedan cars reach the trail start
Yes beginners can do it and sedans can reach the trail start
Ok thanks
Park near Nahela dam
https://maps.app.goo.gl/5C5ZE9qpSzMvPu73A
@patrick , we did this trail today. It was very nice and suitable for beginners.
Thanks for your information
Dear Meer,
I am glad that you enjoyed the hike and that my information was useful for you.
Enjoy Hiking !!
Thank you for the tips. It was a great trails.
I am glad that you enjoyed the hike and found my post informative.
Keep Hiking and Enjoy Hiking !!
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Thank you Patrick for recoding this beautiful trail. We didn't go to 3rd big cave up from the 2 Caves down. After the lower Caves we went back and climbed the moutain from the side you descended and after the summit we cam down to 3rd cave. This was easier to do no tricky business just loose rocks.
Hi Husnain,
I'm glad that you found my trail, pictures and information useful and you had a pleasant hike.
Keep hiking.!!
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Thank you for the trail. We followed it up to the first set of caves.
can we hike at the beginning of the trails or is it not nice? we want something closed
and if i’m looking to camp then hike early could you suggest a spot? as i’m going today☺️
Hi Amal,
I didnt understand your first question.
Its a village at the start, before the village may be you can look for a spot?
But it would be open.
oh ok great - thanks!
Please update / review this post after your hike experience.
Hope my post will be helpful to you.
Enjoy your new year hike.
Hello Amal,
So how was camping and the hike ?
Thanks for complete info we did this hike yesterday 💜
Hi Kishor,
I'm glad that you enjoyed the hike and my wikiloc post was of assistance.
Keep hiking !
Many thanks for sharing this location and also the by chance meet up before start.
We went in hotter weather so we decided to turn back a few km before
the walked above the wadi on the way in and through the wadi on the way out.
It's best to walk along side or on top of the wadi to keep inscets away .
Tks
Hi Sarju,
It was my pleasure to meet you guys too.
Yes, these days, Giving an early start will give you ample time to complete and enjoy the hike.
It's always a good decision to plan a turn around time.
Regarding insects, it's new information for me. I hiked in that area 3 times during cooler times and the surroundings were insects free.
Keep hiking safely and enjoy !
Finsihed the hike today. Hike was great however, I would like to add that we took the suggestion of climbing from where you had descend, however descending from where you climbed was super tricky and it could be by no means a beginners trek.
We were ok as all 4 of us on the hike had descent experience of hiking, but at some point it was thrilling as we had to literally descend with steep drop on our left.
Hi Sanket,
Glad to know you enjoyed the hike.
What I had meant by my suggestion was that to ascend and descend to the higher cave by our descend path and NOT to follow our route in reverse mode for upper cave.
All said and done.
Good to know that all went well.
Enjoy Hiking!!
Make sense in that case. I mis understood your comment.
Make sense in that case. I miss understood your comment.
It's ok Sanket.
That's what I wrote at the last section of the description in the post.
In any case, all is well that ends well !!
By the way, is it possible to join any of your treks in future?
Pls Contact me on 0503838630
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Hey Patrick! So i just realized that I commented to the wrong trail you’ve recorded so i deleted that review haha!
Thanks Patrick for recording this trail. I find it tricky to look for the way up to the last cave, but with your advice in the caption it was very helpful for us figuring out the trail. I have noticed that you went all the way up behind that mountain then came down for the cave. We prefer to follow only your descent and went down the same way. Overall it was a great hike. The caves are very interesting!
Hello Ann,
I am glad that you enjoyed the hike !!
Yes, the top cave needs to be approached in a safer manner and I described it similarly.
Keep hiking and stay safe !!
I partially did this trail. I missed the way on the left and ended up at the top of the mountain facing the caves.
Hi Dadda,
Its sad that you missed the way and reached elsewhere !!
I'm sure you will hike again this trail to reach the caves !!
Happy hiking.