Hell's Gate National Park

Hell’s Gate National Park hiking is a unique and exhilarating outdoor adventure in Kenya’s Rift Valley. The park covers 68 square kilometres near Lake Naivasha in the southern Rift Valley, approximately 90 kilometres from Nairobi. It is one of the few national parks in Kenya where visitors can walk, cycle, and hike without a vehicle or armed escort — an unusual and liberating experience in the Kenyan safari landscape. Hell’s Gate National Park hiking takes visitors through a dramatic gorge carved by ancient rivers through towering basalt cliffs, rock towers, and geothermal steam vents. The Fischer’s Tower and Central Tower are volcanic plugs that rise dramatically from the gorge floor. The geothermal hot springs at the gorge’s base are accessible on foot. The park inspired elements of Disney’s The Lion King — the landscape is unmistakably cinematic. Wildlife includes zebra, giraffe, buffalo, baboon, klipspringer, and Defassa waterbuck, all viewable from bicycle or on foot. Bearded vultures and Verreaux’s eagles nest in the cliff faces. Hell’s Gate combines perfectly with a boat safari on Lake Naivasha and a visit to Elsamere Conservation Centre.