CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
103 km round from Al-`Ula - plan on about 2 h 12 of riding. On the way it passes Elephant Rock, Hegra and Harrat Uwayrid. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 16 km this is Saudi AlUla Scenic Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
AlUla lies in a broad sandstone basin in north-west Saudi Arabia, and the first thing you notice when you arrive is the shape of the rock. Cliffs of red and ochre stand straight up from a flat valley floor, carved by wind into mushrooms, arches and buttresses, and the oasis of date palms at their base looks almost unreal against the stone. The town is around thirty thousand people, with the old mudbrick quarter still standing on the hillside above the modern streets.
Read the complete AlUla write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
AlUla is where the day begins. Next is Elephant Rock.
Jabal AlFil rises out of the desert floor north of AlUla as a lone sandstone pillar, some fifty metres tall, balanced on a narrow neck of rock so that from the right angle it looks like an elephant lifting its trunk to the sky. Wind and sand have been working at it for millions of years, and the result is so convincing that people stop their cars in the middle of the road. It is the symbol of this part of Saudi Arabia, and sunset here is a ritual.
Read the complete Elephant Rock write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Elephant Rock comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hegra.
Hegra, also known as Mada'in Salih, was the southern capital of the Nabataeans, the same desert traders who carved Petra in Jordan, and it holds more than a hundred tombs cut into sandstone outcrops scattered across a flat plain. It was Saudi Arabia's first UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed in 2008, and the sight of the carved facades, standing alone among the rocks with the desert behind them, is a powerful one.
Read the complete Hegra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 46 km into the recorded legs you reach Hegra. Next is Harrat Uwayrid viewpoint.
The Harrat Uwayrid is a dark lava field, a tilted plateau of black basalt that rises along the western edge of the AlUla valley, and the viewpoint here looks down from its escarpment over the oasis and the sandstone country below. Harrats are the lava fields that spread across western Arabia, laid down by volcanic activity over millions of years, and their dark, rubbly surfaces contrast sharply with the pale and orange sandstone beneath. That colour contrast is the whole picture: a black lid on a rusty cake.
Read the complete Harrat Uwayrid viewpoint write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Harrat Uwayrid viewpoint, late in the day. Next is AlUla.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete AlUla write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at AlUla. That is the ride.
AlUla → Elephant Rock is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Elephant Rock → Hegra is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hegra → Harrat Uwayrid viewpoint is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Harrat Uwayrid viewpoint → AlUla is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.