Arsi Mountains National Park

The mountain chain with the peaks of Kaka, Chilalo, Arbagugu and Aluto extends from the heights of the Arsi massifs in the south-east to the escarpment edge of the Rift Valley depression in the north-west.

These peaks, with their natural highland vegetation, have been made into a national park to protect the wildlife within. They are fantastic areas to trek in the wilderness.

Spanning over 1,000 square kilometers across the southeastern highlands, the park protects a crucial ecological corridor between the Rift Valley floor and the high Afro-alpine massifs. The terrain transitions through distinct vegetation zones, ranging from lower-elevation dry Afromontane forests filled with African pencil cedar (Juniperus procera) and podo trees (Podocarpus falcatus), to subalpine heather moorlands and high-altitude alpine grasslands dominated by giant lobelias (Lobelia rhynchopetalum) and Helichrysum blooms.

This habitat network supports a vital refuge for endemic and threatened mammals, including significant populations of the endangered Mountain Nyala, Menelik’s Bushbuck, and rare sightings of the Ethiopian Wolf on the high plateaus. Over 100 bird species inhabit the park’s various biomes, including several regional endemics. Geographically, the mountain range functions as a critical water tower for the Horn of Africa, with its northern slopes feeding the Awash River basin and its southern streams supplying the headwaters of the Wabe Shebelle River system.