Qualla: Queen Elizabeth National Park

Queen Elizabeth National Park: Introduction

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alvinategyeka, CC BY-SA 4.0. In the Ishasha sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park, lions do something that confounds biologists: they climb trees. Not occasionally, not as juveniles testing their limits, but routinely -- entire prides draped across the branches of fig and acacia trees like oversized house cats, limbs dangling, tails swaying in the equatorial breeze. This is one of only two places on Earth where lions exhibit this behavior, and nobody is entirely certain why. The leading theories involve escaping tsetse flies and ground-level heat, but the lions themselves seem unbothered by the mystery. They simply climb.

Image: Alvinategyeka | CC BY-SA 4.0

Queen Elizabeth National Park: Where Two Lakes Breathe Through One Channel

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Duncan Wright, CC BY-SA 3.0. Queen Elizabeth National Park covers nearly 1,978 square kilometers of western Uganda, stretching between Lake Edward to the south and Lake George to the north. Connecting them is the Kazinga Channel, a 32-kilometer natural waterway that serves as the park's arterial pulse. The c...

Image: Duncan Wright | CC BY-SA 3.0

Queen Elizabeth National Park: Craters, Plains, and Forest in a Single Glance

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Guus Gorter, CC BY-SA 4.0. The park's terrain reads like a geological sampler. Volcanic explosion craters dot the southern reaches, some filled with turquoise mineral lakes, others carpeted in dense vegetation. Grassy plains stretch across the center, grazed by herds of Ugandan kob -- an endemic antelope s...

Image: Guus Gorter | CC BY-SA 4.0

Queen Elizabeth National Park: A Name That Keeps Changing

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Josefito123, CC BY-SA 4.0. Established in 1952 as Kazinga National Park, it was renamed Queen Elizabeth National Park in 1954 to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II's visit to Uganda that year. After independence and the turbulent years of Idi Amin's rule, it was renamed Rwenzori National Park in a wave of de-c...

Image: Josefito123 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Queen Elizabeth National Park: The Ishasha Lions and Their Fig Trees

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cody Pope, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Ishasha sector, in the park's remote southern corner along the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, is where the tree-climbing lions hold court. About 50 individuals spread across four prides inhabit the Ishasha plains, and during the heat of the afternoon they ascen...

Image: Cody Pope | CC BY-SA 3.0

Queen Elizabeth National Park: Getting There by Wing or Wheel

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Josefito123, CC BY-SA 4.0. Most visitors reach the park overland from Kampala, a journey of roughly six hours by bus through rolling green hills. The Katunguru Gate marks the main entrance. For those arriving by air, several airstrips serve the park: Kasese Airstrip on the northern boundary, Mweya Airstrip...

Image: Josefito123 | CC BY-SA 4.0