Rwenzori mountain national park
Rwenzori Mountain National Park is in the southwestern part of Uganda. It is on the east side of the western (ALBERTINE) African rift valley, right next to the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Virunga National Park. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has named Rwenzori Mountain a World Heritage Site. It covers an area of 998 km². Blue lakes, waterfalls, climbing trails, snow fields, mountain highland glaciers, and many other things make this area unique.
The tallest mountain in Uganda is Rwenzori. At 5,109 METERS above sea level, Margarita Peak is Africa’s highest peak. It’s also thought to be the third highest peak in the world, after Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya. Hiking to the top of the summit is an adventure of a lifetime. It became Mount Rwenzori National Park in 1991. The locals call it “Mountains of the Moon” because of the snow-covered top. This is the most exciting and difficult mountain area in the world to trek through.
Elephants, Giant forest hogs, Rwenzori otters, Bushbucks, and leopards are just a few of the over 70 kinds of mammals that live in Mount Rwenzori Park, but you almost never see them. The park is also home to 217 bird species, including rare plants and animals that are only found in Albertine, as well as primates like blue, white, and black monkeys, the Angola colobus monkey, olive baboons, and chimps.
The birds that live there are the Rwenzori Turaco, the Long-eared Owl, the Handsome Francolin, the Rwenzori Batis, the Slender-billed Starling, the Cinnamon-chested Bee-eater, and the Barred–long-tailed Cuckoo, among others. There are outdoor paths, stages, and HUTS in the park. Along with Kibale National Park, Queen Elizabeth National Park, and maybe Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, you can visit Rwenzori as part of the south-west route.
Find out how to get to Rwenzori National Park.
You can either go with a tour company or drive yourself. You can get to the park in two different ways. From Kampala/Entebbe International Airport, it takes about 5–6 hours to drive 380 km along the Masaka–Mbarara–Kasese road. From Kampala, you can also drive to the park. It takes 437 kilometers to get from Mubende Fort Portal to Kasese. From Entebbe International Airport, it takes one to two hours to fly to Kasese Airstrip with Aerolink or Bar Aviation. You can then stay in Kasese. The Nyakalengija center circle and the Kilembe trail in KASESE are the two main ways to get into the park. Please keep in mind that there are no places to stay in the park; you must find a place to stay in Kassee or nearby.
Park in the Rwenzori Mountains
In the Rwenzori, you can go hiking at two different elevations: low and high. The low-altitude trek doesn’t go above 4,000 meters and lasts two to four days. The high-altitude trek can go above 4,000 meters and lasts up to eight days. That is, you need to spend at least seven days at the mountain if you want to reach the top of Margarita Peak. The price of a Rwenzori trip runs from $558 for a three-day trek to $2,000 for a ten-day walk.
Front gate; the park fees Fee that lets you get in. The Uganda Wildlife Authority, which is part of the government and is in charge of tourism, charges tourists an entrance fee before letting them into the park. People who are not foreign residents pay $35 per person, people who are foreign residents pay $25 per person, and Ugandans pay $15 per person.
Mount RWENZORI National Park has more than five peaks.
The highest is Mount Stanley, which is 5,109 meters high. Other peaks in the park are Mount Speke, which is 4,890 meters high, Mount Baker, which is 4,844 meters high, Mount Gess, which is 4,715 meters high, Mount Luigi da Savoia, which is 4,627 meters high, and Mount Emin, which is 4,791 meters high. A lot of people come to the park to hike. When going up Mt. Rwenzori, you should bring a kit with things like pain killers, iodine wipes for cuts, Imodium or another kind of stomach medicine, a bandage in case you get twists, water, and snacks.
In Rwenzori National Park, you can go hiking or climbing to the top of Volcano Mountains, take nature walks, go birding or bird watching (the park has more bird species than any other park), meet people from different cultures, visit one of the more than 20 lakes (like Lake Mahoma, Bujuku, etc.), go on a village forest walk, go camping, go mountaineering, and do many other things.
