With endless construction works, shopping malls and skyscrapers, no one could have imagined that Dubai has dedicated its biggest piece of land to the UAE’s first national park.
The Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve is a systematically planned rehabilitation area restored to save Dubai’s severely damaged beautiful desert habitat. At an hour’s drive from Dubai, the DDCR encompasses 250 square kilometers of shifting dunes, sprinkled with fire bush, stunted acacia and endemic ghaf trees, and serves as a sanctuary for threatened local mammal and reptile species such as the Arabian mountain gazelle, sand gazelle, Arabian red fox, oryx and sand fox.
It is possible to visit the reserve only through tour operators who arrange for 4X4 and camel-back tours of the area. For those who are ready to splurge on a luxury hotel stay, the fancy Al Maha Resort lies deep within the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve.
