Rwanda Gorilla Trekking - Volcanoes National Park

Trek into the misty bamboo and afromontane forests of Volcanoes National Park to spend a life-changing hour face-to-face with a habituated mountain gorilla family. Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park - the Rwandan half of the Virunga Massif that spans Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo - is one of only two places on Earth where mountain gorillas can be visited in the wild, and the single most accessible: most trailheads sit under two hours from Kigali International Airport. Each morning, small groups of a maximum of eight visitors set out with an experienced Waterbuck guide and an armed Rwanda Development Board park ranger, tracking one of the park's habituated gorilla families through terrain that ranges from gentle farmland trails to steeper volcanic slopes. Trek times vary - anywhere from thirty minutes to several hours - depending on where the gorillas settled the previous night, and porters are available for travelers who want extra support on the climb. Once your trackers locate the family, you're granted a full, unhurried hour in their presence, watching silverbacks, mothers, and playful juveniles go about their day just meters away. It's an encounter that inspired Dian Fossey's decades of research at nearby Karisoke, and it remains the single most sought-after wildlife experience in East Africa. Waterbuck Tours handles your gorilla trekking permit through the Rwanda Development Board, matches you with a guide suited to your fitness level, and can pair your trek with golden monkey tracking, a Dian Fossey grave-site hike, or a visit to the Kinigi cultural village. Best visited June through September and December through February, when trails are drier, though gorilla trekking runs year-round.