Har Avnon is a short stopover on your drive from our guesthouse to the Dead Sea. It is a lookout that allows you to see the Big Crater – recently renamed Yeruham Crater – (which you are about to cross) in its entirety. Of course it’s not actually a crater but you already know that.
To get to it,
you have to drive through Yeruham, taking road 225, instead of the more direct but less scenic 204. The detour is very short and allows for other short stops on the road that, when combined, could make for a full day of activities if you are not in too much of a hurry to reach the Dead Sea.Har Avnon [Mt. Avnon] will be the first sign you see on the road after leaving Yeruham.
Take the dirt road up to the end (5 minutes). Any type of car can go up, no potholes.
Once in the parking area, you are facing a small hill, but the black marked path leading to the proper lookout is on your left.
Neverthless we found the hill too tempting so we couldn’t resist climbing it.
The view from the top is breathtaking…
…and it is also the perfect spot to observe a second spectacle: the ballet of trucks (there are several mineral digging companies in the area) passing each other on a succession of hairpin bends on the narrow road below. How they manage to do it is beyond comprehension!
After we came down the hill, we then followed the black path which in a few minutes takes you to the official lookout; no less stunning, just from a different angle.
And you now will see just where all these trucks are coming from…
Even if you are in a hurry and you decide not to take the time to stop at the Har Avnon lookout, you will be in for stunning views without leaving your car.
But I still think it is worth taking this time. Allow for anything between 10 to 40 minutes for this stop, depending on your schedule. But even if it is only for the 10 minutes, these will be 10 minutes well spent.
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