The Magical Mount Elgon National Park

Uganda is one of the most inspiring and magnetic African destinations that is full of many attractions and fascinations. With an abundance of natural landscapes and various reserves, it has always drawn the attention of multitudes of all those tourists who grab flights to Uganda. One of the must-see and notable tourists attractions if Mount Elgon National Park- the park got its name from extinct shield volcano called as Mount Elgon and its settled in this beautiful and amazing park area.

The park is settled almost 140 km away from the North Eastern part of Lake Victoria and serves as the source of great allurement and temptation for plenty of locals as well as the foreigners. The park’s area is divided between Kenya and Uganda- Overall it occupies the land area of more than 1279 square kilometres, 169 km square in Kenya and almost 1110 km² in Ugandan part, so the tourists who explore Kenyan territory, can also head towards this spectacular destination. The Ugandan part was gazetted in 1992 whereas the Kenyan part in 1968.

The park is astonishingly bisected by the borders of Uganda and Kenya and serves as one of the most unique and significant location of earth. The park is also very famous for acting as the major water catchment area and supplies water to Lake Turkana and Turkwel River.

The park shelters a rich and lush variety of vegetation and is blanketed with groundsel plants and the giant lobelia, but the vegetation is not same, it changes as you head towards the higher altitude. The slopes are covered with Nigeria adolfi-friedericii and olive Olea hochstetteri. The highest altitudes feature the plantation of Senecio elgonensis, the giant groundsels Senecio barbatipes, Lobelia, Helichrysum, Alchemilla, plenty of herbs, Festuca pilgeri and Agrostis gracilifolia.

The park is also very famous for its botanical diversity and features plenty of unique and rare planet species like many orchids, pure stands of Podocarpus gracilior, elder Sambucus adnata, pillar wood Cassipourea malosana, Elgon olive trees cedar Juniperus procera, juniper and giant podocarpus.

It is one genuine home of attractions and there are plenty of activities that you would love to perform such as Camping photography, Cave explorations, Primate and bird watching, hiking tours to Koitoboss Peak and Endebess Bluff, Self-guided walking trails, Vehicle circuits leading to Koitoboss peak, the caves and animal viewing areas. Apart from it fauna and flora, the park also features plenty of spell casting and stunning sceneries, the mountain peaks, hot springs, calderas, mesas, gorges, waterfalls, caves and cliffs.

Mount Elgon Caves are another source of attraction for adventurers and explorers and other major highlights are volcano’s crater, Hot Springs, the trailhead at Budadiri and ancient cave paintings. There is no dearth of wildlife as well- the park offers shelter to more than 300 species of birds, the commonly seen wildlife are Blue Monkey, the Black-and-white Colobus, forest monkeys, small antelopes, an endangered dragonfly, Baglafecht Weaver, African Goshawk and the endangered Lammergeier.