Mgahinga Gorilla National Park is magic in miniature. It is Uganda’s smallest national park (33.7km2), yet it protects one of the country’s most beautiful landscapes. It is part of the Virunga Volcanoes, which Uganda shares with Rwanda and Congo. You can’t go any further south than this while on safari in Uganda. Mgahinga boasts a magical and unique landscape: ancient volcanoes, crater lakes, and rising mist in the morning.
While the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park often seems dark and impenetrable, Mgahinga Gorilla National Park is a world of peaks and light. Here, you don’t trek through thick undergrowth, but along the flanks of volcanoes, through mystical bamboo forests where sunlight paints golden patterns on the ground. It is a landscape more reminiscent of “Lord of the Rings” than a classic safari.
The name of the national park and its volcanic mountains tells stories of the local Bafumbira people. Gahinga means “a small pile of stones,” referring to the volcanic rocks that farmers traditionally had to clear from their fields. The most spectacular peak, however, is Mountain Sabinyo (“The Old Man’s Teeth”), whose jagged summit resembles a worn set of teeth. Those who dare the challenging hike up to the peak Sabinyo experience a geographical triumph: standing on the summit, they are at the exact tripoint of Uganda, Rwanda, and Congo.
But the true unique selling point of Mgahinga Gorilla National Park is the gold. While everyone else comes for the silverback gorillas, Mgahinga is the only place in Uganda that offers the chance to see golden monkeys. These golden monkeys are active, inquisitive acrobats that live only in the bamboo forests of the volcanic Virunga Mountains. Their fur shines in the sun like liquid metal. Viewing them leap through the bamboo trees at breathtaking speed, with volcanic mists rising in the background, is a spectacle of pure joy and vibrant color.
