Volcanoes National Park

Volcanoes & CratersMusanze,Rwanda

Fragile nature — stay on the trail, leave no trace.

Five volcanoes in northern Rwanda climbing from farmland into cloud forest, where you trek in to sit with one of the last mountain gorilla families.

September·Peaking now

Jun–Sep

June to September is the long dry season — June and July the driest weeks — when firm bamboo trails make the climb to the gorillas easiest. Permits sell out months ahead; early September brings the Kwita Izina naming ceremony at Kinigi.

Year-round Mountain gorillas and golden monkeys live in these forests year-round; the drier months, June-September and December-February, firm up the steep trek.

Volcanoes National Park is a chain of five volcanoes in northern Rwanda that climb straight out of terraced farmland into bamboo and cloud forest, and every mountain gorilla born in it is given a name. Since 2005 the country has held a ceremony each year for the year's infants, more than four hundred of them so far, borrowed from the way a family names a newborn child. It is not only ceremony. A named animal is a tracked animal, and the daily monitoring of known individuals is how this population is counted and defended. The mountains were named the same way, long before any of it was a park. Sabyinyo is the old man's teeth, for its jagged rim. Muhabura is the guide, because its cone once glowed as a beacon at night, and Gahinga is the little pile of volcanic stones farmers clear out of their fields. Groups of eight leave the park headquarters each morning behind guides and trackers, each group sent to one habituated family. The trackers are already in the forest, and they radio back where their family has moved to. Your walk can take an hour or most of a morning, climbing through wet bamboo and nettles, sometimes above 3,000 metres. You get exactly one hour when you arrive, several metres back and wearing a face mask, because a human cold can kill an animal that shares almost all of our DNA. Lower down, in the bamboo belt, golden monkeys live in loud troops of dozens, feeding on fresh shoots and leaping between stems just overhead, which makes them far busier to watch than a resting gorilla family. Bisoke is climbed for its summit: a round green crater lake about 400 metres across, with Sabyinyo and Muhabura standing across the forest on a clear morning. A muddy trail takes you up to the ruins of Karisoke, where Dian Fossey is buried in a small graveyard among the gorillas she studied, beside Digit. Those graves carry names too.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Book your gorilla permit months ahead — trekking spots are capped at a handful of families a day and routinely sell out for the peak dry months long before you arrive.
Both dry seasons make the climb far easier — June to September and mid-December to February firm up the trails, while the wet months turn the bamboo slopes to deep mud.
Respect the altitude — some gorilla families range above 3,000 metres, so keep a slow pace, drink plenty of water, and hire a porter to save your legs for the climb.

Things to do

1
Track mountain gorillas
Groups of eight set out from the park headquarters with guides and trackers, each group sent to one habituated gorilla family. The walk can take anything from an hour to most of a morning, climbing through wet bamboo and nettles, sometimes above 3,000 metres, while trackers who are already in the forest radio back the family's position. When you reach them you get exactly one hour, kept several metres back and wearing a face mask, because gorillas catch human illnesses. The permit is deliberately expensive and sells out months in advance.
2
See golden monkeys
Golden monkeys live in the bamboo belt on the lower slopes, so this trek is shorter and gentler than the climb to the gorillas. They move in loud troops of dozens, feeding on fresh bamboo shoots and leaping between stems just overhead, which makes them far busier to watch than a resting gorilla family. The species survives almost nowhere outside these volcanic forests, and it needs its own permit, which costs a fraction of the gorilla one.
3
Climb Bisoke to its crater lake
The steep haul up Bisoke's afro-alpine slopes ends at a wide crater lake filling the volcano's summit — a round green pool about 400 metres across. On a clear morning the neighbouring cones of Sabyinyo and Muhabura rise across the forest below.
4
Hike to Dian Fossey's grave
A muddy forest trail climbs to the ruins of Karisoke and the small graveyard where Dian Fossey is buried among the gorillas she studied, including Digit. It is a quieter, more sombre walk than the gorilla trek, heavy with the park's history.

Watch

Nearby

27 km