Mount Elgon National Park, a wildlife park in Uganda; one of the 10 parks that make up the wildlife habitats in Uganda. The park is a UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserve. The park is located on the border of Uganda and Kenya sitting on an area of 494 square miles with 430 square miles in Uganda. Meaning the mount is counted as Uganda physical feature.
The Mt Elgon national Park gets its name from mt. Elgin and it has of course the mountain which is an extinct volcano that erupted over twenty-four million years ago. Mt Elgon is considered the highest volcanic mountain in East Africa. It’s the second highest mountain in Uganda and the 8th highest mountain in Africa.
A visit to this park, is meant to give you a chance to experience one of the largest mountain calderas in Africa and the world. The caldera is 60 kilometers long 40 kilometers wide.
The Mt Elgon Caldera is a result of magma getting drained from the bottom leading to the collapse of the cone.
It’s actually believed that before the eruption and drain Mount Elgon could have been the highest mountain in Uganda and Africa; however, since the eruptions, erosions have happened that have kept reducing the mountain’s height.
The park itself is home to over 400 species of plants and 143 of birds plus about 200 species of wild animals. Mt Elgon is also butterflying hub with almost 70% of Uganda’s butterfly population found in this park.
The animals in this park include but are not limited to spotted hyena, Oribi, Defassa waterbuck, black-and-white colobus Monkeys, Bushbucks and smaller antelopes, blue monkeys, buffalos, elephants, red-tailed monkeys and many others.
Mt Elgon is surrounded by various people communities, notably the bagishu and sabiny.
They live at the slopes of either side of the mountain and most of them utilize the fertile slopes to cultivate coffee.
You can visit Mt Elgon national park any time of the year to hike the famous Mt Elgon and to also explore the nature and wildlife in the park plus visiting the communities around the park.
Visit to the park are done all year round, through the Uganda wildlife Authority or a preferred tour operator and consultant.
When heading to Mt Elgon, you will travel about 4 to 5 hours to eastern Uganda’s mbale district to find the park in the budariri area of the district.
If the 4-to-5-hour drive is tedious for you, you can choose to fly to Soroti airfield from Entebbe and then from Soroti have a 45 min to 1 hours’ drive to Mt Elgon national park.
When at Mountain Elgon National Park, you can also access the sipi and Chebet Falls and have a expedition at the falls.
On top of the mountain hiking popular activities done at this park include game drives, bird watching, forest nature walks, community tours, coffee plantation tours, rock climbing, cave tours among other things.
The mountain hike is the longest activity of them all taking between 3 to 9 days; depending on how far up you want to go on the mountain. the other activities can be done in a day or two.
But generally, a visit to Mt Elgon national Park is quite refreshing and fulfilling for all who dare to take it. You get two sides of the Uganda safari. The hike to the Elgon summit and
