RWENZORI MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK

In 1991 the Rwenzori Mountains were gazetted as a National Park named Rwenzori Mountains National Park (RMNP). The extension is 996kms and it runs for almost 120km along the Congo border west of Kasese and Fort Portal.
The Rwenzori National park has a special importance because of its existence in 2 countries. These kinds of cross-boundary parks are also called peace parks. The Rwenzori Mountains lie just north of the Equator along the border between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda. The north- south extension amounts to about 120km and the east-west extension runs to about 50km.
The Mountain  range has 6 major peaks, Mt Stanley (5,109m), Mt Speke (4,890m) Mt Baker (4,843m), Mt Emin (4,798m), Mt Gessi (4,715m) and Mt Luigi di Savoia (4,627m). The highest peak in the Mt Stanley complex (Margherita - 5,109) makes the Rwenzori Mountains the 3rd highest range in Africa. But unlike the two highest mountains in Africa (Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya), the Rwenzori Mountains are not volcanic.
At the southern end of the mountains lies Lake Edward, which is connected to Lake George.

There are 5 different Vegetation Zones found in the Rwenzori Mountains. These are grassland (1000-2000m), montane forest (2000-3000m), bamboo/mimulopsis zone (2500-3500m), Heather/Rapanea zone (3000-4000m) and the afro-alpine moorland zone (4000-4500m). At higher altitudes some plants reach an unusually large size, such as lobelia and groundsels. The vegetation in the Rwenzori Mountains is unique to equatorial alpine Africa and the only other places where they might be also found are at Mt Kilimanjaro and Mt Kenya.

Tourist Activity
Mountain climbing is the major tourist activity. There are not so many larger animals found in the mountains, due to heavy poaching during the 1970s –1980s. In the forest zone are still elephants and buffalos – but they are rarely seen. Animals that are more often seen are chimpanzees, blue monkeys, Rwenzori colobus monkey, duiker, forest hog, hyrax and leopard. The leopard is seen as high as 4000m.

There are only 195 bird species recorded in the park, among them are many rare, threatened and endemic species. The probably most noticeable bird is the Rwenzori Turaco. But also the Francolins, Olive Pigeon, White Necked Raven and Mountain Buzzards are seen in the Range, Grey-winged Robin, Evergreen Forest and Bamboo Warblers, Lagden's Bush-Shrike, Montane Sooty Boubou, Golden-winged and Scarlet-tufted Malachite Sunbirds, White-collared Olive-back, Red-faced Crimsonwing, Oriole-Finch.

Accommodation Options - Rwenzori Tour