10/06/2025
Today's Destination: Aberdares National Park.✈️🧳🐘
‘Majestic Peaks, Moorlands and Intriguing Falls.’
Altitude: 7,000-14,000 FT.
Area: 767 sq. km
Location: Nyeri, Muranga and Nyandarua Counties
Gazettement: 1950
Distance from Nairobi: 180 km
Alluring and dreamy. The rise and fall of the misty valleys, hills and mountains of the spectacular Aberdare ranges that sit across Nyeri, Muranga, and Nyandurua counties are a sight to behold! Open Moorlands and dense forests characterize the park’s vast vegetation, coupled with a deep lush of clean crisp air - perfect for a break away from the busy city life in search of relaxation. The park’s beautiful scenery is one of the great highlights for adventurers visiting this wonderland.
The Park is renowned for its torrential waterfalls, plunging from cloud-shrouded heights to the spray-filled ravines. From the magnificent Karuru waterfall, whose ice-cold crystal-clear waters drop an impressive 300 meters; to the outstanding Gura waterfall - which torrents from the opposite side of the same gorge; the sheer drop of the Chania waterfall, and the enchanting Magura waterfalls, which cascades across the yawning mouth of the Queen’s Cave.
Aberdares offers some of the best trout-fishing streams. The brown and rainbow trout fish abound in the Amboni, Chania, and Gura rivers.
Other picturesque and unique attractions include the Dragon Teeth, a volcanic rock formation that resembles a rugged set of teeth seated on a jaw. They are located in the northern moorlands part of the park South of the Equator. The Twin Peaks are also a magical sight in the foggy but beautiful spectacular landscapes of the moorlands. The pair of rocks located near each other are outcrops formed from volcanic activities.
Rare animals in the park include the black rhino, black serval, black leopard (rarely seen), and the mountain bongo (a huge forest antelope). Other animals include elephants, buffalos, white and black colobus monkeys, leopards, warthogs, giant forest hogs, bushbuck, red duiker, Sumi, reedbuck, and eland.
Lying above the tree line, the scenery is spectacular with its mountainous terrain covered in thick tropical forests swathed in mist. A belt of bamboo vegetation is a favourite hideout for the rare and elusive forest bongo antelope. At 10,000 feet, the bamboo vegetation seamlessly merges with the moorlands, which are reminiscent of the European highlands.
The park is a critical ecosystem in Kenya as it serves as a water tower distribution to the Seven Forks Dams from which hydroelectric power is generated, and water supplied to the Nairobi County.
The Treetops Lodge makes the Aberdares predominantly famous in that it is where Princess Elizabeth found out that she was going to be a queen upon the death of her father. Since then, the game lodge has been popular with tourists on safari to Kenya.
Conspicuously in the park, is an old Mugumo (fig) tree with a deft in its hole. It was used as a Mau Mau mailbox, where urgent messages about the movements of the British troops were left in the deft for other guerilla forest units to collect. The tree is known as Kinathi Post Office.
The peaks of the Aberdare Ranges are both striking and relatively accessible. They can all be scaled on foot. Following the orientation of the ranges from North to South, the major Peaks are Chebuswa (3,364m), Ol Donyo Lesatima (4,001m), Table Mountain (3,817m), Maratini (3,698m) and much further down Rurimieria (3,860m), Kinangop (3,906m) and Elephant Hill (3,625m). The two highest Peaks, Ol Donyo Lesatima and Kinangop, are almost at opposite ends of the ranges with rolling moorlands stretching like a blanket between them.
Game viewing, hiking, bird watching, camping, sport fishing, and picnicking are some of the activities that visitors can enjoy while in the park.
The park is served by eight gates: *The Park headquarters is 15 km from Nyeri town along the Nyeri-Nyahururu road.
Accessing the Park:
From Nyeri: Treetops Gate is 17 km |Ruhuruini Gate is 20 km | Ark Gate is 28 km | Kiandongoro Gate is 30 km |Wandare Gate is 47 km.
From Nyahururu: Shamata Gate is 45 km | Rhino Gate is 48 km.
From Naivasha: Mutubio Gate is 50 km.
Let’s go and explore this paradise together.
Hotlines:
Call or WhatsApp: +254713025875 | email: [email protected] | Website: www.privatesafaris.co.ke
