Mount Longonot Crater and Rim Hike, Kenya

Nestled in the heart of the Rift Valley in Kenya is Mount Longonot, an extinct volcano which is thought to have last erupted in the 1860s. The name Longnot is derived from the Maasai word Oloonong’ot meaning “mountain of many spurs” or “steep ridges”.

Mount Longonot is protected by the Kenya Wildlife Service and sits within Mount Longonot National Park. It is a popular trail that leads up to the rim of the volcano, and also has a trail that goes around the entire crater as a loop. It’s a great choice for adventurous hikers that visit Kenya, as even though there is an entry fee, it’s much lower than some of the other hiking fees in Kenya.

Being only 60km northwest of Nairobi, it’s easily reached from there on a good tarmac road. The last couple of km can be bumpy and it’s not very well signposted off the main road, but it’s doable in a 2wd. It’s a very popular hike and you will almost definitely see other people, regardless of the time of year. There is a car park, restaurant, café, and toilets at the entry gate.

Start point: Longonot Hiking Trail parking - https://maps.app.goo.gl/sUSHrBq6468aTCBA9

End point: Longonot Hiking Trail parking - https://maps.app.goo.gl/sUSHrBq6468aTCBA9

Average duration: 5 hours

Distance: 12km

Elevation gain: 1025m

When to go: Accessible year round but beware of high temperatures and humidity, as well as rainy season as heavy rain may make the paths difficult to traverse

Difficulty: Difficult

Maps/Info: The walking route is well signposted throughout and there is information provided by Kenya Wildlife Services online: https://www.kws.go.ke/mount-longonot-national-park. This is because you must pay a fee to enter the national park – it’s expensive at $26 USD per adult (for non-residents) but we would still recommend this amazing hike.

All Trails provides a great downloadable map which will sync onto Google maps/Maps me/other formats as required:

https://www.alltrails.com/trail/kenya/rift-valley/mount-longonot

TOP TIPS:

• Pay the entry fee for the National Park before you arrive—this speeds up your entry massively. We saw huge queues there when we arrived at the gate, and we got to go past them and simply write down our ticket numbers in the entry book.

• In Kenyan national parks, you cannot take ANY single use plastic inside, including water bottles, so make sure you have your reusables with you!

View across the crater

The hike:

Because of the logistics behind collecting our hire car, and then encountering a huge traffic jam leaving Nairobi, we didn’t arrive at the Mount Longonot car park until around 10am. It was already hot, around 25 degrees Celsius, and getting hotter each second.

With no time to waste, we were glad that we’d brought our entry tickets in advance online via the Kenya Wildlife Service. We parked the car in the shade, got our water and snacks ready, popped to the toilet and then made our way to the entry gate. Because we’d already purchased our tickets, we were able to skip past the huge queue and get into the park relatively quickly.

The trail initially starts off flat and easy to walk on, but with all the dust that we were kicking up, we were pleased we’d worn our hiking boots. We easily hiked the first few kilometres—although we both could see that there was a HUGE ascent ahead of us.

When the path started going upwards, we were pleased at the challenge and enjoyed the route. However, it got steeper, and steeper, and we were both soon out of breath. We were given a reprieve as around halfway up there was a spot where you could stop in the shade, a small picnic area. But, it was crowded with hikers seeking shade. We paused for only a minute or two and then continued on our way.

The start of the trail

After this rest area the trail went even more steeply upwards, and we reached a set of stairs that seemed never ending and incredibly difficult to climb up—the distances between the steps were created for a giant with huge legs, so with my 5ft2 stature I struggled, but made it up.

This part of the hike was the slowest for us, simply because there was only enough room for single file going up and single file going down, which meant we could only go as fast as the people in front of us. And this wasn’t very fast at all! There were older people doing the hike, as well as children, and some people in sliders and crocs, we couldn’t believe our eyes.

After around 1km of steep uphill hiking, we finally reached the top of the crater. The views were out of this world. We couldn’t believe how big the volcano was! But we didn’t spend long soaking it in, as we wanted to escape the crowds. Many people do this hike as a simple up to the crater rim and back down again, so the area at the top of this part of the trail is very congested. This is where you can get the iconic picture at Oloonongot Crater Point, at 2560m.

However, we were hiking the entire loop of the crater rim as well. So, we quickly got on our way, going counter-clockwise. It may be stupid to say, but in our heads, we’d imagined the crater rim to be pretty much a flat hike around the edge. How wrong could two people be? This turned out to hold the steepest and hardest parts of the hike.

On the rim loop - ascending still

The hike was more peaceful away from the crowds, and the views of the crater got better and better the more we walked and soaked it in. For around a kilometre the path was easy underfoot and flat, but it soon got undulating and then became rocky and difficult to traverse as well.

The surface continually changed between smooth and flat, steep and rocky, and gravel and sand—so much so that we couldn’t keep track! We enjoyed the changes to begin with, but then the path became so steep we felt like we were climbing another crater all over again. With much cursing and asking ourselves why we did this hike at all, we got to the highest point of the hike: Mt Longonot Summit, at 2730m.

Highest part of the hike, with the crater rim behind and below us

The path after this point, the highest point of the hike, was really difficult underfoot and took us around an hour to hike two kilometres. It was a hugely steep descent, and the path was so sandy and gravelly that we kept slipping and skidding all over the place, even in our sturdy hiking boots.

Eventually we got down far enough that the trail became flatter and easier to hike once more. We enjoyed this part of the walk and slowed down to soak up the views all the way to Lake Naivasha and across the crater. There were sage trees everywhere and I inhaled the scent deeply, enjoying the foreign smell.

After a few kilometres, we thought we must be nearing the end of the crater rim loop and were trying to guess where we’d joined the trail to begin with. Sure enough, we could almost see the tiny dots of people gathering near the trailhead on the horizon, and another kilometre later we found ourselves amongst them. Not quite finished yet, but feeling very accomplished, we took some more pictures at the crater rim point.

Rejoining the path to go back down the side of the crater, we headed downhill as fast as our legs would carry us. We were so tired. Our legs felt like jelly and were wobbling under the pressure of such a straining hike, but we were carried forwards by the thought of a cold drink in the restaurant near the car park.

The last couple of kilometres descent we did in lightning speed, and sure enough, had food and drinks in the restaurant. 12km, 1025m gain, 4.5 hours, and hundreds of gallons of sweat expired—cheers to that.