Ein Prat Nature Reserve

"This is the beginning of the Wadi Qelt hike. Wadi Qelt is a canyon (Wadi is a canyon/valley) in Midbar Yehuda, which starts just about here and goes until Yericho. The hike is along the Nachal Prat/the Prat River, which is sometimes called the Qelt River/Nachal Qelt, the hike goes from here until basically Yericho (to St George Monastery which is right outside Yericho). This River stream is in the canyon the entire time, also along the way is the remains/ruins of a tremendous aqueduct system which was built in Chashmonaim time and went from the stream here until Yericho by one of the small palace of The Chashmonayim (which you can see the ruins near Yericho). It also brought water to the palace of Herod in his Herodian palace. Also along the way will see old pipes from British time that they built. First go to Ein Prat springs/pools (which you can go in) which is right here 10/15 minutes from parking lot, right next to the Faran Monastery and other Christian ruins (like flour mill), then from there start the trail along the Ein Prat River in direction of Yericho, after 5 minutes you'll see Fig pool which is like the earlier springs, and 5 minutes further is the Palm Pool which is the main spring/pool and can swim and is full of fish that eat dead skin. From there it's about 2 and half to 3 hours to Ein Mabua which is the next main spring. The map they will give you by the office here by Ein Prat Reserve ends right before Ein Mabua, which is the other side of road, either you can go onto road (near Alon) and walk 15 minutes to Ein Mabua, or you can go into the water pipes where the Nachal Prat flows into and keep going to Ein Mabua. See the pin on google maps on Ein Mabua where I wrote the second half of the hike. Because this hike is so long if you want to complete it in one shot you must start as early as possible which is 8 am when the reserve opens. By far the nicest time of year to go is in about beginning/middle of Shevat until beginning/middle of Nissan, because this area (and alot of Midbar Yehuda) is covered in grass and flowers and it makes the valley double as nice- basically from end of winter until it gets too hot and ruins the grass. Now see note on Ein Mabua."