National Parks Africa » Mount Kenya National Park

The 3,350 metre (11,000 feet) contour line around Mount Kenya is the boundary of Mount Kenya National Park. Nowhere else on earth is there perpetual snow actually on the equator. Mount Kenya National Park offers glaciers, 30 small mountain lakes and some of the world’s greatest ice climbing, all within a day’s drive of Nairobi and the hot upland plains.

Large troops of black and white colobus monkeys are common. Sykes monkeys are also found in abundance. Melanistic leopards and serval cats exist here although they are rarely seen. Comical giant forest hogs are common and the more elusive bongo can sometimes be seen emerging from the forests in the evenings.

There are about 150 species of birds. Green ibis and crowned and silverycheeked hornbills are found by streams.

Mountain chats and white-starred bush robins live in the bamboo forests. There are many varieties of mountain warbler and Jackson’s francolin call loudly in the evening before nesting in the bamboo clumps. The almost totally green parrot you might see is actually called the "red-fronted" parrot! It has a small patch of red on the forehead and a patch on the shoulders and wing edges. There are also many iridescent sunbirds, the main species being emerald coloured malachite sunbirds and tufted malachite sunbirds, which are duller, with tufts on their shoulders.

The Mountain Lodge at 2,193 metres (7,200 feet) boasts the most consistent record of wildlife seen nightly. There is a bunker by the floodlit waterhole, so that the drinking animals can be viewed virtually eye to eye. The light is sufficient for satisfactory photographs. Safaris can be arranged deeper into the mountain forest, and fishing enthusiasts can try their luck at trout fishing up the valley, with rods hired from the lodge.