Ethiopia’s top hiking destination, Simien Mountains National Park protects Africa’s fifth-highest mountain range: a stupendous glacially-incised landscape of precipitous canyons, jagged peaks and undulating Afroalpine moorland. Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the park protects a wealth of rare wildlife, from the charismatic gelada monkey to the magnificent bearded vulture.
Discover Simien Mountains National Park
The spectacular uplands of the Simiens are best explored on foot. A good hiking route for scenery and wildlife is a 3-day trail connecting Sankaber to Ayna Meda. For serious peak-baggers, the 14,872ft Ras Dejen is the highest point in Ethiopia.
Less active or time-restricted travelers can get a good feel for the park’s scenery and wildlife by driving along the high-altitude all-weather road that bisects it in an easterly direction.
Endemic to Ethiopia, the gelada monkey is notable for its complex harem-based social structure and the male’s flowing golden mane and red heart-shaped chest-patch. Immersing yourself in a habituated troop of these monkeys as they forage, squabble and play on the highland meadows of the Simiens ranks among the world’s most exhilarating and underrated wildlife encounters.
The Simiens provide refuge to the world’s last remaining 1,200 Walia ibex. The only goat indigenous to sub-Saharan Africa, the ibex is most often seen on narrow cliff edges, where its heavy decurved horns render it unmistakable.
The park’s checklist of 180 bird species includes several alluring heavyweights. These include the endemic thick-billed raven, which is the heaviest of the world’s 5,000 passerine species, and the magnificent lammergeyer (bearded vulture), a localized cliff-nesting raptor with a 6ft wingspan.
