Mgahinga Gorilla National Park

Overview

Mgahinga is only 33.7 square kilometres, the smallest national park in Uganda, but it occupies the Ugandan slice of the Virunga massif and shares a continuous forest with Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park and the DRC's Virunga. Three extinct volcanoes stand in it - Muhabura, Gahinga and Sabyinyo - and all three can be climbed in a long day each, with Sabyinyo's summit sitting on the triple border of three countries. The park has one habituated gorilla family, Nyakagezi, which has been resident and settled for years after a long period of crossing into Rwanda. Permits here are easier to get than in Bwindi and the terrain is more open. The other draw is the golden monkey, an endangered Virunga endemic found nowhere outside this massif; tracking them is cheap, reliable, and quite spectacular as troops of fifty or more move through the bamboo. The Batwa Trail, led by former forest-dwelling Batwa guides, is one of the more honest cultural experiences in the region.