Ruwi Mountain Hike

Yesterday I went hiking with some girls up a mostly unmarked path.  To be honest, we wandered around a bit at first before deciding we were supposed to go up a different mountain.  Without a marked trail, it's easy to not know where to go.  There seemed to be some somewhat used paths at times, but those petered out.  After getting to the right path, we did find some markings and a definite trail.

Our group along the ridge with the rays of sunshine behind us.

In the ruins

Scrambling up the mountain

We found this trip thanks to Omantripper.  Their post didn't have a lot of definite information, but we were able to use the information to find where to park and know that we weren't up the correct peak.  The promises to be found on the right peak did not disappoint!

View from the "wrong" peak.  You want to be on the more tan mountain to the right.  That peak is higher.

Looking to the right from the "wrong" peak.  I love these jagged, grey rocks in the lower right and rays of sun in the upper right.  All in all, not a bad view!

To begin the trek, you take Qurum Heights Road toward Ruwi.  You get off at Hellat al Sadd and turn left.  When that road dead ends just after going under Qurum Heights Road, you take a left and find a place to park.  There is a vague trail that can be seen winding between a couple of the peaks.  As already mentioned, the path isn't always obvious so there is some scrambling about up and down.  If you get to the top and don't see a large flat-ish area, ruins of something (wish I knew what), barbed wire, and a helipad (no joke), you're in the wrong spot.  If we had gone directly to the top, it would have taken us around 45 minutes up and an hour down.  Not a long hike and very doable.

The helipad at the top

The ruins and mountains from the top

Another angle on the view

Panorama looking out toward the sea

I highly recommend hiking in Oman in "winter" or there abouts.  The weather was absolutely beautiful!  It wasn't hot at all.  We did have some cloud cover, but even with full sun, it would have felt lovely.  I'm looking forward to more hikes in the next couple of months.

Bonus picture:  I love when you can see the layers in the mountains.