For thousands of years, ancient paths and trade routes have cut across the land, and so traveling Jorda by foot is an age old practice.

The newly developed Jordan Trail connects these paths, so travelers like me can once again make the trek across the state's spectacular countryside.

And so, with a loaded pack and some new friends, we're going to hit the Jorda Trail and explore the country.

The hot and hard way.

I'm Eric Hanson.

When I see a trail, I see more than a path from point A to point B. A good trail is the ultimate opportunity to explore, to discover new landscapes, and to challenge myself when I don't have a pack on my back.

I'm thinking about my next big adventure because my mission is simple.

My mission is to discover the world's most epic trails.

The Middle East has a rich history and is incredibly beautiful.

But given the turmoil in the region, traveling to the Middle East was off my radar.

Then I heard about the Jordan Trail, a 450 mile long hiking trail that crosses the country and passes through some of the world' most inspiring historical sites.

When I started learning about Jordan, I knew I had to go and explore this place for myself.

And next year.

Having arrived in the capital city of Oman, I hit the streets, eager to get a feel for what life in Jordan is really like.

Amman is unlike any place I've ever been.

The downtown area is bustling with life full of markets mosques and amazing street food.

The primary language is Arabic but there's a surprising number of people that speak English.

Whether we speak the same language or not, the people are all extremely welcoming and friendly.

Personally, I did not have any issues with coming here.

I was just excited to come.

So far I've felt nothing but safe and welcome and it's been really easy to be here.

After wandering the city on my own for a while, I hook up with Amjad and Mahmud, two of the guides who have helped develop the Jordan Trail.

They know the trail as well as anyone.

We grab a traditional meal and get to know each other, knowing that we'll be spending some long, hard days in each other's company over the next week.

So this place is the place to go for falafel.

Get homeless, and hummus.

Yeah, perfect.

So apparently this is the place of kings.

People.

How cool is that?

But I lived up to the expectations.

This place was amazing.

And so we're going to get out and explore a little more.

Super excited to get out and see what else this country has to offer.

Although I could easily spend a few more days exploring the city of Amman, the rolling countryside of th Jordan Trail is waiting for us.

And so we load up and mak the two hour drive to in case, a small tow in the northern part of Jordan.

UNC is a starting point of the Jordan Trail.

Here we meet Ahmed, a loca guide who grew up in the area.

So where are we?

So I'm with Ahmed and he is a local expert on the wild herbs and all the things that grow out here.

And so he's foraging an showing me what we're finding.

And then he's going to take it home to his house and it's going to prepare us a fine meal.

My name is, I'm a, local guide from, case, the wide open space and relaxed pace of life.

Is quite the change from, on.

And even though I consider myself to have a great connection with the outdoors, it's neat to see somebody as connected as Ahmed is to his land, to his food.

Now it's a season of foraging here in north of Jordan, so it's an opportunity for the people to go around, pick some herbs to cook and eat fresh.

That's pungent.

Maybe 30 years ago it was my first time and I like it.

So it's become like a traditional season for me.

I do it every year.

As the sky opens up and the rain starts to fall, ou tour of the area is cut short.

And so he had backed off mid-song, where his wife is preparing a homegrown meal.

For that, it doesn't matter where you are in the world, there's a special relationship that develops when you're invited int somebody's home to share a meal.

This is an amazing opportunity to learn more about the Jordanian culture, and the whole experienc is just getting me more excited about tomorrow when we start our adventure down the Jordan Trail.

My name is.

I'm such a thrower.

I work with the Jordan Trai Association as a trail manager.

I'm mainly responsible fo anything related to the trail.

From scouting to, mapping and GPS and tracks an working with local communities along the trail.

This here is no ordinary telephone call.

This is the start of the Jordan Trail.

The Jordan Trail is a lon distance hiking trail crossing and connecting the countr of Jordan from north to south.

It's 650km long, starting in the city of, place and, ending in Aqaba in the south and the Red sea.

That's piece.

This is a small piece, you know, where you said you were trying to, to to, All right.

One, two, three.

That feels kind of weird.

Yeah.

Hahahahahahaha.

Yeah.

It numbs you out.

You won't be able to talk again.

Yeah.

In Jordan, you experience the Four Seasons?

I would say in May, June, things started to get dry and all the flowers started to appear, and then, and fall, you see all the leaves falling down.

And in winter, you start to get more rain and snow in some parts of Jordan.

Then in spring, you see things, all the greener everywhere.

As you can see here in the North, especially as we make our way south, the countryside is noticeably changing from the lush and green of, case to a hotter, drier and rockier landscape, which I'm told will get even more rugged over the coming days.

This reall reminds me of a Utah landscape.

The sandstone it is.

There's a lot of these big sandstone bluffs.

The Grand Canyon.

Yeah, I remembe hiking out of the Grand Canyon as a kid and being so proud of hiking the ten miles, that it took to get out of the Grand Canyon.

Anyway, you know, hiking in a in a foreign country, when you get to see how other people are living and seeing living conditions and interacting with people, especially being able to hike with locals because you have hours on end with, somebody from a different country to just talk and converse in a way that you couldn't get to know somebody sitting in a room.

Nice breeze.

Oh, it feels great.

Personally.

I love doin all sorts of outdoor activities, but the amazing thing about hiking is that there's so much to get out of it.

Obviously, it's a great wa to get outside and get exercise, but the slow pace really gives you the opportunity to connect with the world around you.

There's also incredible satisfaction that comes from putting in the work and covering a distance under your own power.

And oh, I see why they call that the tough trail.

I don't really I feel like I'm a reasonable sheep, but I collude with being me the whole way up.

Oh, man.

Oh, yeah.

Humbling.

This is pretty amazing up here.

How can we say that?

We're going to come up on a pool with a nice little swimming hole?

So super excited to cool off and get some swimming and.

How cool is this spot?

Geez.

This is one of the best swimming holes I've been to.

This is a pretty rad location.

It's like a 150ft waterfall right here.

And after that hot, hard hike all day, this is perfect.

That feels pretty damn good.

Loving that.

As we continue our way south down the Jordan Trail, the route has been getting more and more challenging.

Today, we did one of the longest and hardest days of hiking so far.

And so we find ourselve walking into camp with the sun already set.

Although we're tired and looking forward to getting camp set up and eating a hot meal, it's a beautiful night.

Despite the ominous looking clouds that we saw in the distance.

Settling into camp, we get a campfire going, and I'm excited to hear more from Amjad and Mahmoud about tomorrow, because I know the trail will be taking us through a place I've always wanted to see.

The ancient city of Petra.

Whil we camped out for the night and, rainstorm moved in last night, it's been windy and blustery and a little bit of a downpour on us.

Oh, we're just about to, break camp and head out for the day.

Got a big mission, and, hopefull we got some good weather today.

I've been looking forward to this for a long time, because today we'll be arriving at the ancient city of Petra.

One of the greatest things about hiking a new trail is never knowing what you'll find around the next corner.

And so, even though I know we'll be arriving in Petra at some point, the path we're on exemplifie what an epic trail is all about.

I can't help but imagine wha it was like over 2000 years ago, at the height of its glory, when it was an important trade route between China, India and southern Arabia.

A double herd of golden.

For us.

So we're hiking trail took us into the slot canyon today where we see the first evidence of traditional Bedouin dwellings.

This here is called Little Petra.

And as we continue down canyon, we'll eventually arrive to Petra.

The tourism trail is very special because I consider it a full experience.

It's not the only hiking trail you get to meet, different people from differen ethnic groups along the trail.

When you start in this in the north, you're, dealing with farmers from villages.

As you go to the south, you see more Bedouins.

How do I look?

Do I look, Bedouin?

Yeah, they're they're good.

Yeah.

All right, let it.

Yeah.

Like it.

Coming around the corner here and just seeing the first glimpse of the monastery just looks out of this world.

This is wild.

Dating back to the first century BC, the monastery is Petra's largest monument.

And enough reason on its own to make the trip.

But we only have a little time to marvel at it, because we still have a long ways to go, and we'll be hard pressed to make it through Petra before nightfall.

I'm probably no the only one who saw Nina Jones, and was surprised to find out that it wasn't filmed on a Hollywood set.

When I discovere that it was a real place, I knew it was somethin I had to see with my own eyes.

How old is this?

When the 21st century BC.

It's seen.

Despite he quick pace of travel, darkness has caught up with us, and we find ourselves making the final leg of the journey through Petr by the light of our headlamps.

Even though it' too dark to see much around us, I can sense that I'm passing through a special place.

After a while, I see a faint light in the distance, and as we get closer, I realize it's the candles lighting the path to the treasury and one of the most incredible sights of my life.

I've got a three.

I'm getting to witness Petra by night, and this is just really overwhelming experience.

So beautiful.

You.

Jordan tourism board, North America.

Your journey to adventure starts here.

Returnin to Petra the following morning, I get to see what we couldn't see last night.

And the size of the city blows my mind.

It's incredible to imagine that thousands of people lived here only a few decades ago, including Mahmoud and his family.

So you lived in this case?

What a great year this was.

Your home, made for this kind of life.

Yeah.

Carved into the sheer rock over 2000 years ago, Petra was an important trad route in the first century BC.

It was later annexed to the Roman Empire and continued to thrive until a large earthquake destroyed much of it in the fourth century A.D.. By the middle of the seventh century, Petra was deserted to all except the local Bedouin from the area.

The.

Salam, Salam, I hear you're the man to come to for the true Bedouin look.

Yeah.

All right, let's do it.

This is trying to open your eyes little more.

Although part of me wants to continue to explore Petra.

It's a lot easier to leave knowing that I can expect something amazing on the next leg of our journey.

Because s far, every section of the Jordan Trail has been nothing short of spectacular.

And so we set out into Wadi Rum with the young Bedouin, who is excited to show us one of his favorite places to watch the sunset.

We had a young Bedouin driver, and he was, you know, romping around on the dirt roads out here on the sand roads.

And that was that was pretty neat.

He took us to one of his favorite sunset spots, and then he got a fire goin and was preparing a tea for us and sitting up on the rocks watching the sunset, drinking tea with a young Bedouin man.

It was a really cool thing.

That was.

That was definitely fun.

Very nice.

Yeah.

I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like Wadi Rum.

Its name means the the Valley of Pillars.

There's just these massive rocks sticking up out of bright orange sand dunes.

It's not the coolest looking place I've ever seen.

It's just, fantastic desert.

And there's so much here.

The Jordan Trail idea started years ago when many people and outdoor enthusiasts had this dream.

They started going out, scouting different sections of the trail.

We have a full trail connecte all the way from north to south, 650km starting in place and ending at the Red sea.

When you hike the trail you get the chance to see Jordan in a different way and from a different perspective.

You know.

Hello there.

Yes.

And, the inscriptions on this side I discovered befor that you can see people up with, that strongly.

You know, I was.

It's a pretty surreal experience to go all the way through a country from north to south.

And it really surprised m how much there was to do and see from collecting our own food up north and then getting into red rock country.

Petra was, of course a once in a lifetime experience.

And finally arriving here in Aqaba by the Red sea was the perfect end to a trip of a lifetime.

So when people ask me what makes for a truly epic trail, for me it's the full package.

The trail is more than just a path.

It's a journey to explore new places, to learn about new cultures and experience new things.

And maybe best of all, make new friends.