The Great Nafud begins almost at Ha'il's doorstep, its red dunes rising to the north and east of the city in a landscape that looks unlike anywhere else in Arabia. This is not the flat, featureless desert of stereotype but a dynamic sea of crescent dunes, some towering more than 100 metres, separated by broad corridors of pale desert floor. The red colour — unusual among Arabian sand seas — comes from iron oxide in the grains.
Day trips into the Nafud from Ha'il are straightforward to arrange through local operators. The most accessible entry point is along the road toward Jubbah, where the dunes crowd in from both sides and you can pull off and climb to the crest of a dune for views across the sea of sand. More serious excursions involve overnight camping, which is perfectly legal on the open desert and gives you the chance to see the Nafud at dawn and at night when the temperatures drop and the silence is absolute.
The desert supports more wildlife than it appears to: sand gazelles, desert foxes, and several species of reptile can be spotted with patience, particularly around the edges where sparse vegetation survives. Spring brings brief blooms of desert flowers after good rains.