Upper Galilee trek – optional plan including Keshet Cave and Monfort Fortress

Keshet cave - Click to enlarge

Galilee is the greenest area of Israel. It is hilly with many historic sites, carefree scenery, recreational and gastronomic offerings for tourists.

This post is an optional plan that is suitable for one or two days in the Galilee area, weekend or middle of the week.

Day 1 , Saturday:

Visiting Adamit Park - the Keshet Cave and Garden Trail.
Visiting the Pottery fair at Vradim Village.
Checking in our wooden house at Elkosh village.
Dinner at Hurfeish village.

we woke up early and left Tel Aviv at 10:00 heading for the north. Our first attraction to visit was the Adamit park, 400 meters above sea level (click here to open a map) in which you can see the Keshet cave and walk the “Garden trail” and more.

The trail for the Keshet cave is paved and suitable for all walkers and even a wheel chair which allow you to get a few meters from the magnificent Keshet (arc), and takes 15 minutes to get there. There are signs and a paved parking lot. There are toilets and drinking water too.

From there we went to a nice pottery fair in Kefar Vradim. We saw nice hand made pottery, sculptures, Judaica, Pitchers and cups. We bought two cups and a pitcher.

Our Wooden house in Elkosh

We then headed to our room at Elkosh village not before we stopped at Hurfeish village which is a few minutes drive, to eat. We sat down at one of the places for a lamb Sambusak (like a pita bread with minced lamb meat on it), Salad and Tea.
After that, we headed to our cozy room at Elkosh village.

Day 2 , Sunday:

Breakfast in the garden
Visiting the Dalton winery which is located at a town called Dalton. The winery is at the industrial area number 3. Dalton is close to Gush-Halav village. You can take a
Goren Park – Observation of the Monfort Fortress. An easy 5 minute walk on a paved trail, suitable for all ages.
Goren Park – Going down the valley for the Kziv river, takes about 45 minutes one way. Difficulty level – medium to difficult.

We started day 2 with a breakfast in our garden, and we then headed to Dalton winery for a tour. We had wine tasting inside the visitors center. Israel is known for it’s good red wines, which is what we tasted. Two wines I can recommend were the Cabernet Sauvignon and The Shiraz. They are very good red wines, that are aged in wooden barrels.

Monfort Castle

We then headed to the Montfort Fortress (Hebrew: מבצר מונפור‎, Mivtzar Monfor) which is a ruined crusader castle, about 22 miles (35 km) northeast of the city of Haifa and 10 miles (16 km) south of the border with Lebanon.
The site is now a national park inside the Kziv nature reserve, and it constitutes an important spot of tourism and attracts many tourists both from inside and outside Israel. The Kziv river flows all year long.

There is a choice of 4 to 6 hour trek, but we came at 13:00 which would of been too tight, as it gets dark at around 17:30 in October. So, we just stopped at the Monfort observation and then followed the unpaved road (1km) east and a bit up to the Ein Tamir “Olives” parking lot, which is the Kziv river trek starting point .
We follow the trail marking and went down the mountain to the Vally.

So, to sum it up you have these options for Park Goren:

7 km trek, 4 to 6 hours of medium to difficult difficulty level – Start at the Monfort Castle observation point and go down the red marked trail. At the river you’ll see the remains of a crusader farm. Up on the hill you’ll see the Monfort castle. Head east while you cross the river a few times , until you get to remains of an old mill. Trail continues in flora bushes and trees, ponds and fountains. After 3 km from the farm, you’ll get to the Ein Tamir fountain which is waters that flow from underground, surrounded by white stone and magnificent flora. Very nice place for lunch!
From there you’ll take the blue trail which is steep , and onto the Parking lot above. Last part will take you about 45 minutes to an hour. Please bring drinking water.

Kziv river (Ein Tamir)
Second option is to separate the two – see the castle and then take the car to the end point, and go down to the river. So, just enter the Goren park, stop at the first parking lot you see, that is the Monfort Observation, park the car and follow the paved trail that leads to the observation of the castle, that’s a few minutes walk.
Then take the car and drive strait along the road , about a km east (maybe more) until you get to the Ein Tamir / Olives parking lot. That’s the starting point of the blue trail that gets you down to the Kziv river, the white stone and the cave. That option is shorter and will take you about 2.5-4 hours to cover depending on your pace.