Mount Kenya National park & Reserve
Mount Kenya National park & Reserve – Mount hiking and wildlife safaris in Kenya
Mount Kenya national park – “Come touch the sky” Climbing to 5,199 meters, Mount Kenya is the second tallest mountain in Africa. The scenery surrounding this designated World Heritage Site is breath-taking. It is pristine wilderness with lakes, tarns, glaciers, dense forest, mineral springs and a selection of rare and endangered species of animals, high altitude adapted plains game and unique montane and alpine vegetation. Visitors can enjoy mountain climbing, camping and caving with the mountain’s rugged glacier-clad peaks providing the perfect backdrop.
General park information
Mount Kenya National Park is located in central Kenya. Mt Kenya is the second-highest mountain in Africa, after Mt Kilimanjaro. Its elevation is 5,200 meters, or 17,060 feet. Despite its smaller size, Mt. Kenya is far less popular than Mt. Kilimanjaro for climbers. This is partly due to the fact that it is far more technical of a climb, which does not allow for the ‘average’ visitor to summit it. As a result, many companies have stopped offering treks and have focused more on safaris, with most combining a trip to Mt. Kenya National Park with trips to other parks such as Amboseli and Masai Mara. Located northeast of Nairobi, Mount Kenya National Park is easily accessible for those seeking a quick one- or two-day safari.
Birds of Mount Kenya national park
Mount Kenya has a rich montane avifauna. The park has six of the eight Kenya Mountains Endemic Bird Area and 54 of the 70 Afrotropical Highlands biome species that occur in Kenya. Mountain Kenya area has records of globally and regionally threatened species, some with no recent records. They include Abbott’s Starling,Lesser Kestrel (a passage migrant on the moorland), Jackson’s widowbird (at up to 3,000 m), Sharpe’s Longclaw, Olive Ibis, Lammergeier, Ayres’s hawk-eagle, African Crowned Eagle, African Grass Owl, Cape Eagle-Owl, Purple-throated Cuckoo-shrike, Long-tailed Widowbird, Abyssinian Owl (very rare and poorly researched), Scarlet-tufted Sunbird, and Kenrick’s Starling which is confined to this area in Kenya.
Wildlife of Mount Kenya National Park
Most of the park is located above 3,000 meters, or 9,800 feet, making it malaria-free, but also making it cooler than surrounding areas. Those seeking the big five won’t find them all here, but they will be almost guaranteed to see an elephant—one of the big five. Sightings of leopards and rhinos are extremely rare and Mount Kenya is not advised as a safari destination for those whose must-sees include these animals. In addition to the elephant, other animals that are often spotted include: white tailed mongoose, suni, black fronted duiker, mole rat, bushbucks, water buck and elands.
How to get to Mount Kenya?
How to get there
Roads: 175 Kms from Nairobi, the park can be reached on Nanyuki-Isiolo road via Sirimon Track or Nyeri-Nanyuki road near Naro Moru. The park is also reachable via Chogoria on the Embu – Meru road, about 150km north of Nairobi.
Mountain climbing routes without an official gate include:
Kamweti
Marania
Burguret
Themwe
Airstrips: The closest commercial airstrip to the park is at Nanyuki
Where to stay in Mount Kenya National park.
-Hotel Fairmont mount Kenya safari club.
-Serena mountain Lodge.
-Naro moru river Lodge.
-met station Bandas.
Best time to visit Mount Kenya National Park.
Temperatures at Mount Kenya are cooler than throughout most of the country. The climate is subtropical or temperate. The rainy season runs from March to May and from October to December, when it is drizzly and cloudy. Rainfall is moderate on the lower slopes and heavier higher up. The sunniest months are from December through March.