Mount Elgon national park

Mount Elgon National Park lies in Eastern Uganda, and it is that one magical safari to explore if you are to get the best of experiential African safari. It covers an area of about 1145 square kilometers and inhabits the extinct volcano-Mount Elgon one of oldest physical features in Uganda. This volcano once featured as the Africa’s highest mountain exceeding the Kilimanjaro’s current 5895 meters but due to erosion, it reduced to 4321 meters making it the highest peak in East Africa and 8th in Africa. There are also 2 tribes that live around here-the Bagisu and Sabiny as well as the marginalized Ndorobos who lived deep in the forest of Benet. This volcano spans for over 4000 square kilometers thus featuring the largest volcanic base in the world.
This park derived its name from the spectacular Mount Elgon which straddles at the border with Kenya.
Mt Elgon is home to two tribes, the Bagisu and the Sabiny, with the marginalized Ndorobos forced to dwell deep within the forest of Benet.
The park is named after Mount Elgon, an extinct shield volcano on the border of Uganda and Kenya.
Mount Elgon National Park is home to over 300 species of birds, including the endangered Lammergeyer. The higher slopes are protected by national parks in Uganda and Kenya, creating an extensive trans-boundary conservation area.
Attractions
Elegon national park
Most of the trekking is within the boundary of Mount Elgon National Park. This national park is spread over an area of 1,148 square km in the Ugandan ecological zone in the Eastern region of Ugandan.
Bagisu culture.
Elgon region is the home of Bagisu. Bagisu is an ethnic group of Uganda. They are one of the ethnic Bantu speaking people. Most of the people who are working in mountaineering and expeditions belong to this ethnic group. They are highly regarded as elite mountaineers and experts in their local terrain. They speak their own language. The Lugisu language belongs to the south branch of the Bantu language family. During Elgon trekking, you will visit villages of Bagisu and have the opportunity to see their real lifestyle, traditions.
Flora
In this Eastern region you will find varieties of flora and fauna. In the lower forested zone, you will find a lot of trees and shrubs like blue pines, firs, bamboo and rhododendron grow. Above this zone all vegetation are found to be dwarf or shrubs.
Fauna
The forests of Mount Elgon national park provide habitat to at least 118 species of birds, including Red-billed chough, and Yellow-billed chough. This park is also home to a number of rare mammal species, monkeys are also found in the park.
Activities
Brid watching
A trip to Mount Elgon National Park rewards travel endeavors with exciting birding experience. The birds to look out in this park include the golden winged and tacazze sunbirds, Ross’s and Hartlieb’s Turaco, Jackson’s Francolin, lammergeyer, crowned hornbills, black and white casqued hornbills, African blue fly catchers, chin spot batis, luhders bush shrikes, baglafetch weaver, Doherty’s, white chinned prinia, Chubb’s cisticola and others.
Hike sipi falls
This is one of the most explored sites and features an ancient enormous Stone Age cave painting close to the Budadiri trail head, scenic mountain peaks and hot springs which bubble strongly and gorges among others. The Sipi falls are found about 66 kilometers off Mbale, en-route to the Forest Exploration Center and Kapkwata. The available accommodation in this area is Sipi Falls Resort.
Trekking through Mount Elgon
Three (3) main trailheads take you to Mount Elgon peaks, one of which kick starts from Budadiri- the Sasa trailhead, the Sipi trailhead-forest exploration center to Kapkwai or use the Kapkwata also known as Piswa trailhead. The Sasa trail passes via the park’s vast area of bamboo forest and it is a direct route to the mountain peaks.
Camping
This park features about 9 basic campsites for you to embark on camping experiences. They are strategically located on the trekking routes and camping can be done in designated campsites. For any need to do camping here, you need to come with your camping gear including tent, sleeping bag, gloves, hat, sturdy hiking shoes, flashlight, rain gear, cooking equipment, food, first aid kit, warm clothes and others.
Day hikes
Embark on day hikes in any of the 3-day trails at forest exploration center. They range from 3 to 7 kilometers, and they provide the best experience as it comes with amazing encounters of rare plant and wildlife species. The 4th trail takes you through distinct vegetation zones then to Tutum cave and provides excellent sights at wildlife species like black and white colobus monkeys as well as several bird species.
Accessibility
To reach Mount Elgon National Park, you can take a tarmac road that runs through Jinja to Mbale town at the western base of Mount Elgon, before climbing to Kapchorwa on the mountain’s north-western flank. Murram roads lead off the Mbale-Kapchorwa road to reach the various trailheads The road has been completely tarred up to The Sipi Falls Trading centre with work continuing up to Kapchorwa. The road is steep in places however a pleasure to drive. This route was prior to the tar was a 6-hour hell journey after any rain. Budadiri is accessible by public transport.