Volcanoes National Park

• Home to the endangered mountain gorilla
• Tracking the Golden Monkey
• Dian Fossey Research Centre

The 13,000 hectare Volcanoes National Park (Parc National des Volcans) was designated national park status in 1925 and protects the Rwandan portion of the Virunga Mountains, a range of six extinct and three active volcanoes that forms the border with Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Sitting between 3474m and 4507m altitude, the park is home to over half of the regions surviving 650 mountain gorillas. Immortalised in the film Gorillas In The Mist, the biographical account of primatologist Dian Fossey which was set and shot in the park, Volcanoes National Park is the place to experience the most intimate and poignant of wildlife encounters – tracking the four habituated gorilla families.

Today, various Rwandan tour operators offer exclusive mountain gorilla tracking excursions into the park on a daily basis, however the number of permits allocated daily is limited and it is advisable that travelers book their permits with the Rwandan Tourism Board well in advance.

In addition to gorilla tracking, a network of trails transect the park, varying from gentle day walks to challenging overnight trails to the higher peaks of the Virungas. The Volcanoes National Park is also home to the Golden Monkey, a beautiful and distinctive bamboo-associated race of the blue monkey, endemic to the Albertine Rift.

Special Features of Volcanoes National Park:

• Ruhengeri: The main base for Gorilla tracking, Ruhengeri is a small but bustling market town situated 15km from the base of the Virunga Volcanoes. Boasting a wonderful sub-montane setting, and an excellent range of cheap to midrange hotels, Ruhengeri is an agreeable place to spend the night before one goes gorilla tracking, as well as being the obvious base to explore the little-known but compelling beautiful lakes of Burera and Ruhondo.
  
  
• Dian Fossey: The mountain gorillas that survive today are largely thanks to primatologist Dian Fossey, who is buried at her Karisoke research centre in the Virunga volcanoes, alongside the animals to which she dedicated her life. Through the biographical tribute to her efforts, the film Gorillas In The Mist served to raise international awareness of the plight of the mountain gorilla.