The Aberdare National Park, established in 1950, comprises an area of 590sq km (228sq miles). This includes the moorlands and part of the forest of the Aberdare Mountains, for the most part over 3,000m (10,000ft). The famous Treetops Hotel, 19km (12 miles) from Nyeri, is situated in a salient of the Park which extends down the eastern side of the range to the lower edge of the forest.
The second forest lodge in the Aberdare National Park is the Ark, also accessible from Nyeri, via the Aberdares Country Club. This lodge, sited in the forest above a swampy glade, water hole and salt lick is the most lokely place in Kenya from which to see Bongo, these large and handsome forest antelopes being frequent visitors. Leopards sightings are also not infrequent.
The Park is readily accessible from Nyeri and Nar Moru on the eastern side, the road crossing the Park and connecting with the road from Naivasha and North Kinangop on the west.
The Aberdare Mountains are part of the central highlands of Kenya, running roughly north-south between Nairobi and Thompson’s Falls. In altitude the range risesto some 3.930m (12,900ft). The mountain slopes especially on the eastern and western flanks, are covered with heavy forest with tree ferns in places giving way to a bamboo-hargenia zone at higher levels.
Deep ravines cut through the forested inclines, through which hidden trout streams flow and waterfalls cascade down hundreds of feet of rock face. Above the forest stretch miles of open moorlands , broken by lichen-covered rocky outcrops, hills and crags, thickets of giant heath and tussock-grass bogs.