יער הכ"ח (יער קולה)

This is not a particularly well-developed site, which is part of its charm. It was a bit tricky to figure out where to park and what to see once we got there, so we ended up just pulling off to the side of the dirt road and wandering through the forest paths to look at wildflowers. It was really really beautiful, and the smell reminded me of California forest hiking, for some reason - maybe the sun warming the pine needles?

What I loved about it was the fact that you felt like you could get lost there. The trails aren't well marked, but that's not a bad thing. It was also very quiet most of the time (except when we got too close to the edge of the forest, near the town of El'ad) and we hardly saw any other people.

There is a nice picnic area with barbecue facilities. Especially lovely to see a fully wheelchair accessible picnic table and firepit, with a paved path all the way from the handicap parking spot. We also saw a tent that someone had pitched, not sure if it's officially permitted to camp there but I'm pretty sure they stayed overnight. There is a poorly kept memorial to the Alexandroni brigade, which is underwhelming but has a nice view from behind it. There was also an old crusader fortress that was quite overgrown but fun to "discover".

We went at the end of February, the perfect season to see wildflowers, and we weren't disappointed. The anemones were gorgeous, but I enjoyed the other wildflowers (purple, white, yellow... unfortunately I don't know their names!) just as much. There were also an abundance of colorful butterflies, grasshoppers, and birds. Really a sweet spot to explore for some quiet, or perfect for a family picnic with kids.