Explore Mount Elgon National Park Uganda – Sipi Falls and Chebonet falls.
Discover Mount Elgon National Park; this National Park is 140 kilometers northeast of Lake Victoria. Comprising 1,279 square kilometers (494 sq. mi), the National Park is bisected by Kenya’s border with Uganda. The 1,110 square kilometre Ugandan section of the park is located here; the 169 square kilometre Kenyan section is located here.
The park’s Kenyan section was gazzatted in 1968 and its Ugandan section in 1992. Mount Elgon, an extinct shield volcano on the border of Uganda and Kenya, is the inspiration for the naming of the National Park The Kenyan-Ugandan border divides Mount Elgon National Park exactly midway.
Important water sources for the Nzoia River, which empties into Lake Victoria, Mount Elgon is also the source for the Turkwel River, often called as the Suam River in Uganda, into Lake Turkana.
Climate
The temperature falls from damp to mild dry. There is more than 1,270 millimetre annual rainfall. Though it rains at any time, the dry seasons range from June to August and from December to March.
Greenery
From high open moorland dotted with the huge lobelia and groundsel plants to montane forest, Elgon’s slopes contain a great range of flora. At different altitudes, the vegetation changes. Olive Olea hochstetteri and Anngueria adolfi-friendericii moist montane woodland blankets the mountain slopes.
Changes in olive and podocarpus gracilior woodland at higher elevations then a podocarpus and bamboo Arundinaria alpine zone. Higher further is a Hagenia abyssinica zone and subsequently moorland with heaths Erica arborea and Philippia trimera, tussock grasses including Agrostis gracilifolia and Festtuca pilgeri plants such Alchemilla, Helichrysum, lobelia and gigantic groundsel senecio barbatipes and Senecio elgonensis.
Mount Elgon’s flora variety has huge podocarpus, juniper and Elgon olive trees cedar, Juniperus procera, pillarwood Cassipourea malosana, elder Sambucus adnata, pure stands of Podocarpus gracilior, various orchids.
Of the 400 species identified for the area, Ardisiandra wettsteinii, Carduus afromontanus, Echinops hoehnelii, Ranunculus keniensis—which is previously thought to be endemic to Mount Kenya and Romulea keniensis—are especially noteworthy.
Mammales
On the lower slopes you may see buffalos and elephants. Red tailed monkeys have been recorded after believed to be regionally extinct; the National Park also has a range of tiny antelope and duikers as well as forest monkeys like the Black and white colobus and blue monkey. There lived leopard and hyena in the late 1990s.
birds
There at least 144 different bird species on Mount Elgon. Because of their limited distribution, Jackson’s spurfowl, the Eastern bronze-napped pigeon, Hartlaub’s turaco, the Tacazze sunbird, and the threatened lammergeyer really appeal to me.
invertebrates
Found here in 2005, the longleg of an endangered dragonfly was named after Nobel Prize laureate Wangari Maathai. Mountain Elgon has recorded half of Uganda’s known butterfly species.
attractions
Apart from the flora and animals, the National Park has a diverse landscape of cliffs, caverns, waterfalls, gorges, mesas, calderas, hot springs, and mountain tops. The four explicable, large caverns where regular night visitors like Elephants and Buffaloes come to lick the naturally occurring salt found on the cave walls are the most popular sites.
Rising 200 meters into Mount Elgon, Kitum cave with overhanging crystalline walls reaches The panoramic view of the escarpments, gorges, mesas, and rivers of the region from the Endebess bluff Koitoboss, the tallest mountain on Kenya’s side, rises 13,852 feet and is readily reachable for hikers in around two hours from the end of the road. Among the activities are
Vehicle circuits connecting to Koitoboss Peak, the caverns, and animal observation sites.
Paths of self-guided walking
Trailking to Koitoboss Peak and Endebess BluffPrimate and bird observationArchaeological digs in caves
Photography for camping
Mount Elgon Cave Formation
Elephants and other animals have been shown in recent research to be main causes of these unusual natural events. Often visiting at night, the animals “mine” the natural salt by licking it off the cave walls. Visitors to the park may explore Kitum, Chepnyali, and Mackingeny by use of the mapped caverns.
Other points of interest
Other features include hot srings in the crater of the old volcano that bubble at temperatures of up to 48°C and prehistoric cave paintings close to Budadiri trailhead.
Known Culture
Parts of Richard Preston’s novel find their backdrop in the National Park. The book also describes the Hot Zone Kitum Cave. The Mount Elgon Caves could have influenced the well-known book King Solomon’s by Henry Rider Haggard.