Tsalmon Stream National Park – Visitors Guide

Tsalmon Stream National Park offers a lovely short trail with water and archaeological remains near Karmel.

Note: In 2026, Israel launched a new project that pumps treated, desalinated Mediterranean water into the Sea of Galilee (using the Reverse Carrier). The water is pumped to Tsalmon Stream, not far from Ginosar. That trail is called Lower Tsalmon Stream.

Map

Tsalmon Stream National Park is located about a ten-minute drive to the east of Karmel. You can see it while driving along road #804 to the South of Rame.

Directions for drivers: Link to Waze and Link to Google Maps
Directions for public transport: Link to Moovit

Interactive map of the area:

By the entrance, you can find a parking lot that can be full if you arrive late.

Tracks

Here is an interactive map from israelhiking.osm.org.il, where you can see the most popular variations of the Tsalmon Stream trail.

The most popular trail is one-way, starting at the upper parking area and following the stream to the lower parking area. The marked trail length is 1.4 km, with a total descent of 61 meters. If you do not have two cars, you can do what we did. We started at the upper parking area, took the blue trail to the lower parking area, and then returned the same way.

Opening Hours

It is an open national park. There is no entrance fee, and you can visit it whenever you like. However, the sign at the entrance states that you should not remain in the park after dark.

Entrance Fee

Free.

When to Visit Tsalmon Stream National Park?

As I wrote in Events and Festivals By Season, Spring is the best time for a visit. However, flooding is a danger in winter, spring, and fall. Hence, check the weather reports before visiting.

Photos from Tsalmon Stream

In this section, I will show some of my photos from the hike.

As you can see from the photos, there was little water in May (the water was barely flowing).

Summary

Tsalmon Stream National Park offers water, greenery, and some archaeology. Together with the fact that the trail is easy, this makes the park popular among families. And we loved this hike as well.

It took us about one and a half hours to complete the loop trail (there and back), including a short break at the pool. I would recommend arriving early for two reasons. First, there are not many parking spaces, and there is not much water (when there are many people, it will be harder to find a spot by the pool).

Note: if you are interested in national parks, check out National Parks and Nature Reserves in Israel.

Have you ever been to Tsalmon Stream National Park? Tell us about your experience in the comments below.

That’s all for today, and I’ll see you on future travels!

Stay Tuned!

Additional Resources

Here are several resources that I created to help travelers:

• Trip Planner with Attractions and Itineraries is the page that will help you create your perfect travel route.
• What is the Best Time to visit Israel? To answer this question, we will consider the weather, prices, holidays, festivals, and more.
• Information and Tips for Tourists to Israel will answer the most common questions tourists have about Israel (including safety, passports, weather, currency, tipping, electricity, and much more).
• Israel National Parks and Nature Reserves include a complete list, top ten, map, tickets (Israel Pass, Matmon, combo), and campsites.
• If you are looking for things to do, here are the pages for Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Sea Of Galilee, Akko (Acre), Eilat, Nazareth, Safed (Tzfat), and Makhtesh Ramon.