Mount Elgon National Park is one of the national parks in East Africa with the highest peak known as the Wagagai peak. The park is situated in Eastern part of Uganda bordered with Kenya in the western edge of rift valley. Mount elgon national park is on the lowland and is composed of 1,279 square kilometers of its area. Half of the land of about 1,110 kilometers covers part of Uganda and the remaining 169 square kilometers are part of Kenya.
Mount Elgon National park is among the oldest and largest parks in East Africa and half of its land is gazetted with waterfalls, hot springs, caves and mountain peaks. The park is also a home for wildlife such as elephants, buffaloes, hyenas, leopards and small antelopes like dik dik, sitatunga, primates like forest monkeys, black and white monkeys, blue monkeys, red tailed monkey and many others.
The park is a forest reserve which is habituated for chimpanzees, forest monkeys and also the two trailheads leading to the mountain peaks the Buddakiro and kap kwat trail heads. These last for 4 to 5 hours in the Bamboo forest.
The park has got five mountain peaks and wagagai peak is the most popular peak in East Africa to be the highest peak measuring 4321 meters [1417ft] above sea level. Koitobos peak measures 4222 meters [13852ft] above sea level at rim of Kenya, sudak peak measuring 4302 meters above sea level on border of Uganda and Kenya, Mubiayi which is 4211 meter[13616ft] above sea level and Masaba which measures 4161 meters [13652ft] above sea level which is on the edge of Uganda.
The mountain has become the 4th highest mountain in East Africa and the the 8th in the world. It has been existing for over 25 million years with its nature being a volcanic mountain covers 8 kilometers in diameters and 3000 meters above the sea level.
History of Mount Elgon National Park
In 1929 the area had local people who used to carry out farming on this land and later in 1940 it came to be the mount elgon crown forest. Between 1951 and 1992, it was turned to a forest reserve. The habituated area for over 300 species of birds such as Apolis, black shouldered kite, bearded vulture, Jackson francolin, Tacazze sunbird, Eastern bronze naped pigeons, African blue fly catchers, 22 species of floras like romulea, uchepos horelli, carduus afromantous, water bodies such as lakes, hot springs, mountain peaks, caves, primates like black and white monkeys, blue monkeys and many other. All these species are protected under Uganda wild authority and it has become the world heritage site.
Mount Elgon National Park is also surrounded with two tribes i.e. the Bagisu and the Sabinyi who are good in entertaining with their traditional dance known as Imbalu. The tourists can as well join them to experience more about the African dance during the cultural safaris experience.
The park is a gazetted area for game reserve of over 300 species of birds, water bodies such asuam, river Nzoia & river lwakhakha. They all pour their waters in lake Victoria which is the largest lake in East Africa and in the world. The park has got two trailheads which lead tourists to the cave and contains salt on its walls where animals do link from to take these salty water. Tourists can spot wildlife such as buffaloes, leopards, elephants, primates like blue monkeys and many more. Tourists can also embark on the sipi falls safari where they will experience rock paint at sipi falls and enjoy lovely splashing waters of the sippi falls. There are also hot springs with in the park which are at low temperature of up to 48 degrees celsius.
