Wadi Damm - the hidden pools

February 07, 2023

Wadi Damm - the hidden pools

It is official - we have a new favorite wadi! Wadi Damm is a bit of a drive from Muscat - around 3 hours - but it is absolutely worth the effort. If you make an early start, you can make a day trip of it but the best is to camp - and we have found the best camping spot!

The name, Wadi Damm means hidden pools - not sure how accurate this name by now, the wadi is a very popular spot, it is relatively close to Dubai and it is an easier one. You can drive up to the start and with little effort you have quite beautiful pools you can swim in. Besides Wadi Shab and Tiwi, this was the only wadi where we had loads of company. With people comes trash - surprisingly, there was not much inside the wadi, but plenty at the "entrance" area (piles of them actually). It does have some hidden parts, read on to find out more!

So what makes this wadi so special? It has it all: petroglyphs, beautiful pools, fossils, fun bouldering, great camping and it is all relatively easily accessible. You just have to know where :). Because this wadi comes with a secret - it has a lower and upper part. Everyone seems to go to the lower part - and not many find the upper part.

So here are all the details you need to know if you want to visit this wonderful wadi!

Lower wadi

For once google maps is accurate so if you type Wadi Damm Pools parking it will guide you to the right place. The last few hundreds meters are off-road, so if you are with salon car park at the end of the asphalt road - wadi entrance is in a short walk away. This is where most people camp as well - if you like crowed, trash and toilet smell, go for it. We did not but more about that later.

You will see a falaj, follow it - it leads to a small dam. Before you take off do not forget to check out the petroglyphs - on the left side there is a brown signpost just next to the falaj and you can find more on the right side. Shame that both spots seem to be frequented toilet spots.

Once you reach the dam, you will see steps, you walk up and continue to the wadi, passing by many nice pools. Eventually you will reach a huge rock and seemingly the wadi end there - not quite, there is a rope at the huge rock on the left and in waterfall on the right. I could not pull myself up on the rock rope and we did not want to get wet at this stage (it was a cold day) - good news is that you can avoid the rope. On the right side as you walk in, few hundreds meter before the rock there is a path leading up to the side of the wadi - stone piles give it away. Search, you will find it.

And this is where the super nice part of the wadi starts. Here again we found some really nice petroglyphs and Arabic text carved into the rock (around 23.2318,57.0756, on the right side). Eventually you will reach the nicest pool, with green fern hanging all around - you can have a warm shower under it! It can be a bit tricky to go down to the pool - maybe best is to climb down around 23.2317,57.0795. The wadi continues beyond the pool and will eventually lead to the upper part - we did not hike this section, but planning to come back to try it out. Also because it was quite cold when we visited - this wadi seems to work best in warmer months, probably April or September/October.

The upper wadi

The much less visited section of the wadi is also super nice - you can explore it from above, walking the perimeter of the wadi on the surface, which is fun. You can park here and descend to the wadi around this point for more pools and caves - look out for the small stone piles to show the way. Once you are at the bottom, keep right and you will reach a pool with extremely cold water - you have to swim, but it is not too big and the next pool is much warmer and comes with a waterfall with even warmer water. You will notice a rope - if you pool yourself up and climb the waterfall, you will find a nice cave on the other side. I did manage to pool myself up, but chickened out from climbing the waterfall, mainly because the only way back is to jump from the top of it - and it looked extremely high from down below :). You can explore the wadi bed - there are nice caves and other pools. And it was completely empty when we were there. You can see here how the hidden cave looks - we will try to come back later, when it is warmer, see if I can gather the courage to jump :).

The camping

We camped here - beautiful spot with Jebel Misht in the background. It was absolutely stunning and again, we were alone. We grilled and enjoyed the night sky, it was fantastic. To reach the camping spot and the upper wadi parking, you need a 4WD.

It was hands down one of our best weekend trips. Besides exploring the wadi we did visit the beehive tombs and visited some of the villages - in January everything was very green. We did not want to rush so we missed Ibri - well, one more reason to come back!

Location: scroll for the map at the end for all locations

Car: For the lower part, salon car is ok, for the upper part 4WD is better

Time for wadi walk: On the lower part we spent around 3 hours but we were not rushing. Upper part around 2 hours.

Difficulty: Easy, except if you want to discover the cave beyond the waterfall in the upper part

Kids: there are toddler friendly parts

Timing: we were here in February and the water was called. Best to come in warmer months