Qualla: Volcanoes National Park

Volcanoes National Park: Introduction

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

"In the heart of Central Africa, so high up that you shiver more than you sweat," Dian Fossey wrote, "are great, old volcanoes towering up almost, and nearly covered with rich, green rainforest -- the Virungas." She spent eighteen years among the mountain gorillas of these slopes before she was murdered in her cabin in 1985, a crime that remains unsolved. The park she fought to protect now generates more tourism revenue than any other site in Rwanda, and the gorillas she studied -- once numbering fewer than 250 -- have grown to over a thousand. Fossey would not have predicted that outcome. She distrusted tourism. But the $1,500 permit that visitors pay today funds the rangers, the trackers, and the anti-poaching patrols that keep her gorillas alive.

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Volcanoes National Park: Africa's Oldest Protected Land

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Volcanoes National Park traces its lineage to 1925, when Belgium's King Albert I created the Albert National Park -- the first protected area on the African continent. Its primary purpose was to shield the mountain gorillas of the Virunga range from hunters. In 1929, the park...

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Volcanoes National Park: Into the Bamboo

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Gorilla trekking here begins with organized chaos. At seven in the morning, visitors gather at the park headquarters near Kinigi for registration, tea, and sometimes a traditional dance performance. Guides sort groups by fitness level and assign each a gorilla family to visit. Th...

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Volcanoes National Park: Five Peaks on the Border

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Virunga volcanoes are not merely backdrop. Karisimbi, the tallest at 4,507 meters, offers a two-day climb through bamboo, then Hagenia forest, then alpine meadow, before reaching a summit that can drop below freezing. Bisoke's crater lake, shimmering in the thin air at 3,711 ...

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Volcanoes National Park: Fossey's Shadow

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Dian Fossey's grave sits near her former Karisoke Research Center, high on the saddle between Karisimbi and Bisoke. She is buried beside Digit, the silverback whose killing by poachers in 1977 transformed her from researcher into activist. The $75 trek to her grave is quieter tha...

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Volcanoes National Park: Golden Monkeys and Thin Air

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The mountain gorillas share these forests with another primate found nowhere else on Earth. Golden monkeys, with their bright orange-gold patches against dark fur, live in the bamboo zone and are tracked on separate permits far less expensive than the gorilla treks. They move fas...

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