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| Kenyan National Parks | Tsavo West National Park
Altitude 500-6,000ft. Area 9,065sq km. Distance from Nairobi 240 km. It was founded in April 1948.
The Park can be easily reached and it is located off the main Nairobi-Mombassa road. Here you can enjoy tremendous views with various habitats ranging from mountains, river forest, plains, lakes and wooded pasture. Its plains border with Tanzania. The wildlife includes leopard, cheetah, buffalo, rhino, elephant, giraffe, zebra, lion, crocodile and small mammals as mongoose, hyrax, dik dik and the nocturnal porcupine. It is the excellent place for those who enjoy walking and offers a number of nature routes and the chance to explore the Chaimu Volcanic Crater.
Mzima Spring is also a popular destination here. It is a pool of natural spring water where you may viewippos.
Hell's Gate National Park
Altitude 5,000-7,000 ft. Area 68 SQ km. Distance from Nairobi 90 km. Opened in February 1984.
Hell's Gate is an ideal family escape for a day trip from Nairobi or a stop on the route to Lake Nakuru or Masai Mara. Lake Naivasha is located just beyond the Park and it is famous for its natural hot geysers, eagle and vulture breeding area.
Unique sites include Fischer's Tower, the central tower and Njorowa Gorges, two extinct volcanoes (Olkaria and Hobley's). Natural steam rise from cracks in the volcanic rock. An amazing black glassy rock, obsidian comes from lava is a breathtaking feature of this landscape.
Here you may view such game as hyrax, lion, leopard, cheetah, Masai eland, cokes hartebeest. The Hell’s Gate is heaven for ornithologists and rock climbers. There for about 103 bird species have been recorded.
Meru National Park
Altitude 1,000-3,400Ft Area 870 sq km. Distance from Nairobi 348 km. Opened in April 1968.
Meru National Park is stretching to the both sides of the Equator and cut by 13 rivers and numerous mountain-fed streams. The diverse scenery of the Park is amazingly harmonious, from the slopes of Nyambeni Mountain Range, north east of Mount Kenya down to wide open plains with meandering riverbanks pointed with doum palms.
Here you may encounter such game as lion, elephant, cheetah, leopard and some of the rarer antelope, lesser kudu, some of Kenya's largest herds of buffalo. The rivers are full with hippos and crocodiles. 300 birds’ species have been indexed among which Peter's finfoot in the Murera and Ura Rivers, Pel's fishing owl, kingfisher, roller, bee-eater, starling and weaver.
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