Mount Kenya national parks as a safari attraction

• Excellent Game viewing
• Mountain Climbing
• Fantastic Scenery: Lakes, Tarns, Glaciers & Peaks
• Rare Birds & Animals
• Natural Mineral Springs
• Mountain Forest with High Altitude Plains Game

At 5,199 m. high, Mount Kenya is Africa's second highest mountain. It offers easy or challenging ascents with superb scenic beauty.
 

To the Kikuyu tribes people it is the home of the Supreme Being: Ngai, a name also used by the Masai and Kamba tribes. In traditional prayers and sacrifices, Ngai is addressed by the Kikuyu as Mwene Nyaga: the Professor of Brightness. The name comes from Kere Nyaga, the Kikuyu name for Mount Kenya, meaning Mountain of Brightness - Ngai's official home.

Part of the mountain's fascination is the variation in flora and fauna as the altitude changes. The lower slopes are covered with dry upland forest, the true montane forest begins at 2,000 m. is mainly cedar and podo. At 2,500 m. begins a dense belt of bamboo forest which merges into the upper forest of smaller trees, interspesed with glades. In this area the trees are festooned with high altitude moss.

These forest belts are host to many different animals and plants with at least 11 unique species. Game to view includes: Black and White Colobus and Sykes monkeys, bushbuck, buffalo, elephant and lower down Olive Baboon, waterbuck, black rhino, black fronted duiker, leopard, giant forest hog, genet cat, bush pig and hyena. More elusive is the bongo, a rare type of forest antelope.

A number of other rare or endangered species can be found here: Sunni Buck, Mt Kenya Mole Shrew, skinks (lizard), and a variety of owls. Occasional sightings have been recorded of albino zebra.

The high altitude heath at the top (3,000 - 3,500 m.) is generally open, dotted with shrubs: African Sage, protea and helicrysum. The peak (above 3,500 m.) is moorland, with little game other than high altitude zebra and eland common in the norhtern moorland.

There are lodges inside the Park, climbers huts and three banda sites. Just outside the Park there are three lodges and another self-help banda