Mount-Kenya.com

Mount Kenya offers vivid colors, majestic plants and rare wildlife to its visitors and climbers. A belt of forest surrounds the mountain and provides a home to coffee growers and many plantations. The wide ranging temperature of the mountain above 2900m allows for a wide tableau of plant life, from the Bamboo zone with its dense stands of bamboo to the upland forest, laden with orchids, ferns, wildflowers and trees. From its tussock grassland and giant heather, to its glades of massive East African Rosewood trees, the colors, scents and textures that greet visitors are astounding.

The variety in wildlife is startling, but understandable in this wide-ranging equatorial to alpine climate. In the upper forest, where the weather is still quite warm, you'll find colobus and blue monkeys. You also can glimpse smaller antelopes and leopards. You may hear the chuffing sound of the hornbill and the vibrating hoot of the turaco. Further north and above the Bamboo zone the augur buzzard, Mackinder's eagle owl and Verreaux's eagle can be seen circling for the rodents and pygmy shrew that seek camouflage and shelter in the tufts of grass that dot the landscape. Other occasional visitors include buffalo and elephants.