From that point of view Judea desert is not a part of the global desert strips (Sahara, Mojave, Kalahari and the likes), it's relatively small and therefore very accessible from any part of central and south Israel. It's very common to start a desert crossing from Jerusalem in the north and ending at mount Massada in the south.

Having said that, doesn't say anything about the regions actual geography: Heavy rains in the west indicate one thing: heavy seasonal floods in the Judea desert. This is why the Judea desert is crossed by relatively long and very deep Wadis (creeks) running from 3000 ft high Judea hills (Jerusalem and Hebron) down to the deepest, lowest point on earth - the Dead Sea in the east - grooving the entire desert. That is also why a cross Judea desert is a Wheeler's sweetest Dream.

There are no less than a dozen 4 grade creeks to cross long this 65 miles desert run and no less than two 4+ in the middle. It's fairly easy to drop down to any of the ?grooves? with normal 1st low, unless you are a faint of heart, or if you use and watch your clinometer?.If you use any kind of Crawler you'd probably do better. You can never tell what the last flood did to the trail out unless you are down inside the creek. One fine way to get unstuck is to wait for the next flood. It will carry your truck directly to the Dead Sea taking the shortest way down ignoring the 4300 ft height differences! So a strong winch, pull pal, Hi-Lift. sturdy 10 lbs sledge hummer and all sort of recovery equipment are a MUST out here.

Running solo is not only forbidden at this time of year (floods season) but is also extremely STUPID. In spite of all the precaution Judea desert takes its toll every year. It's a fact of life here. Some of us risk too much or are plain idiots. Not really a crawling arena - the desert asks to be respected. Hauling a 2+ tons (truck + people + equipment) 4runner in a 40 degree, unstable terrain slope with a mixture of 3-6 feet high rock steps is no laugh. A floods are rare at this time of year and you can expect to get a NOAA report while stuck in a 1000 feet deep creek shadowed by bright yellow threatening straight up lime walls. You work your way out as fast and as you safely can helping each other forward up as quickly as possible.

If it's so dangerous ask you - why now? Why not wait for a "safer" weather? Well in the desert you have only 2 seasons: floods or heat. Heat means 120 degrees (in the shadow and there is no shadow) frying your brains off. But hey, don't we like the danger if we are prepared to face it?

Despite it s forbidding name in English - "Dead sea region" , (In Hebrew it's called "The Sea of Salt"), this region is amazingly alive and well! Still fascinating as the biblical site of the Lord's wrath, where God rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, and where Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt (Genesis, 19:24-26), the Dead Sea is also probably the most phenomenal body of water on earth, and its surroundings are wondrous.

At 400 meters (1300 ft.) below sea level, it is the lowest. deepest spot on earth. Part of the 6000km Great African Rift Valley. 55km long by 17.5km. at its widest point, with a depth of up to 400m., this inland sea is flanked by the Judean Hills and desert to the west and by the Mountains of Moab in Jordan to the east. Although fed by rivers in Israel and Jordan (mainly Jordan river), as well as springs and winter floods, no water flows out of the Dead Sea. Instead it evaporates in the extremely high temperatures. This leaves one of the world's greatest concentrations of minerals, which supplies vast amounts of raw chemicals for industry, agriculture and medicine; these are extracted, processed and exported all over the world by the Dead Sea Works at the ancient site of the city of Sodom. One of the region's mysteries is the "yet to be found" Gomorrah.

Getting There:

We started our crossing in our hometown of Tel Aviv. My brother in-law Moshe Krouvi, was driving his modified 4x4 GMC big block automatic Van, made @ Pathfinder industries California, especially for the use of IEC - Israeli Electric Company (a hated utility monopoly packed with our money - so they can build what they don't need with no money considerations). His truck features a Corp. 14 bolt 9.5" rear, Dana 60 front, and spring over. After 5 years of service the utility drivers don't want them any more and the company gets new ones selling the old work horses cheap for $2000-$3000 a piece.

Adi Avidar drove his rear Detroited 1980 CJ7 automatic. I was driving my 1994 V6 automatic 4Runner. We took the Ayalon freeway south toward highway #1 to Jerusalem. 68 Km later (42.5 miles) we were in Jerusalem. At city limits we turned north east always on highway #1 towards the ancient city of Jericho. We passed Maale Adomim and refueled in Kfar Adumim, where we met a third friend, Yossi and his new Hyundai Galloper (a Korean made Montero).

Ten Miles down the road we turned (south) entering the northern part of the desert, following a military road leading to Nabby Moussa - Prophet's Moses Grave - according to the Muslims believe. (according to all other believes, no one was supposed to know where he had been buried). After some 6 miles in the desert the road ends in a huge "parking lot" (for the army M113s and Tanks, and it's up to your navigations skills from here on. The general direction is south, but the topo will not always permit a direct straight line. Navigation is extremely difficult here, so you better use all your skills or hire a guide. A GPS and a reliable (updated) 1:50.000 (km) topographic map come real handy here. Don't leave home without one, even if you know the trail by heart. It's always a different trail. (the floods - remember? They alter the topography considerably every second week and you have to improvise according to the map).

The Desert:

The Judea desert trails and dirt roads are paint marked by the "National Committee For Trail Marking" associated to the "Israeli Society For Protection of Nature". The system is a colored stripe between 2 white stripes every half a mile or so and in any cross road where you may get lost... So you can follow the "red trail", "blue trail". "green trail" or "black trail". These 4 colors are enough to mark the entire national territory as the marked trails are far apart and are marked on different regional topo maps. The problem here is lack of maintenance (of the colored signs and of the maps) sometimes the rangers paint the marks on boulders and sometimes on trees and other salient object. Sometimes the signs hold upto the floods and sometimes you can travel miles without spotting a color sign. Irresponsible people and Bedouins destroy the marks as well. So you can't rely on it 100% here.

This run is normally divided into 2 sections (northern and southern) divided by the Darga Wadi. Next to Mezokey Dragot - a cliff climbing and water falls snap-link school is the only "opening" in the cliff that will let you drive down from the upper plateau to the Dead Sea shore in a very curved paved road.

You could spend a night in the school here, or cross the entire desert in a single day (last couple of hours will be at dark) We had no extra time, so we decided to take our chances and run it all in a single day. We double checked our night vision gear (Hellas and IPE 130-170 Watts) and headed in.

The first real obstacle you run into is a nasty one: The Quidron Creek - running Jerusalem's raw sewage down to the Dead Sea through the desert. One of the most disgusting omissions of the ministry of the environment. It really stinks up your wheels for the next couple of miles. Once passed you follow the "blue trial" eastwards that eventually changes direction to south and color to red. Welcome to the Mazok Hahetequim (Syrian - African crack cliff) natural reserve. Tread lightly and don't get off the trails. $100 fine per truck if you dare to start a camp fire or park in an unauthorized camping spot.

Every couple of miles you can find a trail that will lead you eastwards from the red trail right to the edge of the cliff. The sight is gorgeous, you see the Dead Sea from more than a 2000' height and Moab red mountains in the distance. We leave the crack cliff heading west. Ahead lies the first real obstacle: Darage' Wadi. This is the first deep creek to cross. This time the big deal is getting down onto the creek as the way out is not an issue as with the real big ones ahead. From top it looks easy. A desert road twisting ahead down into the creek. Once in 1st low you get to understand the difficulty. No traction! 40 degrees drop, tight off-camber right hand U turn - and no traction at all.

Low range is a must or you risk burning your breaks and dragging your rear into the "abyss". This part of descent is the notorious "Death Curve" Not so deadly this time - it had its name from an accident way back, where the trail was narrower and the lime was all wet and slippery. The GMC Pathfinder had difficulty here as it's high and long. My 4.56 gears helped but the Detroit is not the right locker for tight turns. I wish I had manual locking hubs that would have permit me a 2wd low. The steering in low 4wd is heavy and frightening here. There's not much room and a good spotter is helpfull. As we passed the same spot last year in the rain (we loved the idea of rain in the desert!) and by night (!), we had little trouble doing it again this time. Once we arrived at the middle section of the run we crossed Tequoa creek and carried on with the semi paved trail towards the southern more difficult part of the desert.

We followed the black trial and crossed several 3-4 level creeks. We rushed (25 mph) to the two really big things awaiting next. It was starting to get late and the western cloudiness posed a threat. 4 hours to nightfall. and yet 2 major 4+ parts to go.

Crossing from north the first real 4 level creek is the Arugot Wadi. (Garden-Beds creek) 200 meters descent at 45 degree grade, loose terrain all covered with a thick layer of dust and powder. This is a play ground for lifted big wheeled trucks or at least heavily armored bellies and sturdy bumpers. As a father of 3 small kids I need to keep my running boards in order to help them climb aboard somehow. After the Arugot It was time for a remodeling job. I like the fact that it's made of aluminum - so it bends back easily.

Once inside the creek the clouds continued to assemble and hid the sun. We stopped all engines and listened carfully. The trail exit up south was a disaster. Same as the one we dropped down in with a while ago, but with higher and bigger rocks and pot holes. The GMC with its open diffs tried first. What it lacks in lockers it covers with good articulation, one healthy big block, Kelly MT tires @ 18 psi and a very experienced driver. One of our spectators stood too close to a spinning rear wheel and caught a sharp lime stone debris half an inch from his left eye. First miracle. Our First aid kit was put into action.

The second to climb was the Galloper TDI. My 4Runner and the CJ with the rear Detroit and good MT tires (Copper STT) had no real problems this time. It was fun to feel the locker click and bang, while the V6 motor washauling the truck up above the rocks. Bang bang boom ouch! it went, the entire truck rocked and rolled, but we were clear.

It took us another 40 minutes of ups and downs through the grooves, in and out, to get to Hever wadi (Companion creek). The way up was even more disastrous! Loose rocks, holes, and a nice set of rock steps. Above all the approach angle was steep, It looked like a wall! This time we had to work harder in order to make it more accessible. Some of the holes had to be filled with stones as we were afraid that the heavy GMC open diffs won't make it up. Although we didn?t use the winches we lost some valuable, nerve wrecking, time inside the creek. It was not safe and we were starting to feel the anxiety. It was turning dark and we still didn't know how to get out of there. We still had some 3 & 4 type grooves to cross.

Harsh words went flying by and group calm was lost. We had some 5 kids with us and people became very nervous here. This is the time to get wiser, I said to myself, and started to hand out orders in military style. All went well as we tried to imitate the public work department by building our way out. One of the older kids was sent up by foot with a VHF radio to spot and inform us of any incoming flood water wave. To hell with the trucks - as long as we can get out of here before an eventual wave.

It took us some 45 minutes to complete our little construction project. This time the locked CJ went up first. If we needed an anchor a CJ with a Ramsey Platinum 9000 is just cut for the job. It struggled its way up - hitting the diffs and the gas tank, but eventually made it to a safer spot up. We rearranged our work (after the CJ we had to rebuild it all again) and the GMC was second to try. He tried 3 times and got up with very good spotting from Adi - the CJ driver. The Galloper was third. Again the good motor and OEM limited slip diffs were doing good. Our mastery of the construction work was getting better this time, so he went up as smooth as butter. I tried last and had all the time to see the right approach so I managed to go up on a second attempt spinning my rear left in vain the first run. We where out and the rest of the trip - though ran almost entirely at night was a piece of cake.

Before getting to our final destination, exiting the desert from the back door, the southern part of the desert next to Massada mountain, we got to see one of the wonders that only this desert can offer: Just before night fall we spotted a a flourishing 200 years old almond tree. Imagine the scene: 14 tired, angry people staring at an ancient almond tree in the middle of nowhere, admiring its flowers. Just to make a point about what's really important in life. Still we are all friends and we will go-on exploring our (and our trucks) possibilities again and again.

We finished our one day cross desert trip @ Kfar Nokdim (Sheppard's Village). It was 20:00 and we were hosted by the local Bedouins. For just 10$ a head we got a heated Bedouin tent, mattresses and pillows, as well as hot showers and a safe parking spot for the trucks. We had dinner and slept well before meeting other 5 trucks for the second Wadi Zin crossing scheduled for the next morning . As we remembered, it was harder on the trucks - but safer for us people.

Trail damage? None really. Some of our pride was heart though, as all were embarrassed about the incident down in Hever Creek.