Lake Naivasha is one of the freshwater lakes that are found in Nakuru County, just outside Naivasha Town. The lake is approximately 100 kilometers north of Nairobi. Naivasha is a Maasai word, Nai’posha, which means “rough water” because of its sudden storms. The lake has a surface area of 198 kilometres square, a great increase from 134 kilometres square when its water level increased significantly in the year 2020. It has a depth of about 6 meters, with the deepest point being around Crescent Island, with a depth of 30 meters. The lake is surrounded by swamp, which increases or decreases depending on the amount of rainfall experienced.
Lake Naivasha is famous for its high population of hippos, with over 1,500, and you are almost guaranteed to see one during your visit to the lake. The lake has two main perennial rivers that feed their water into the lake: the Malewa and the Gilgil rivers. It is a freshwater lake, unlike Lake Elementaita, Lake Nakuru, and Lake Bogoria, which are soda lakes in the Rift Valley.
Crescent Island Game Conservancy
Crescent Island is a game-rich peninsula in the county of Naivasha Nakuru.It is located about 9.1 kilometers from Naivasha Town along the Moi South Lake Road and 100 kilometers from Nairobi. It is in the middle of Lake Naivasha with walking trails and abundant wildlife that provide a 360-degree view of Mount Longonot, Hell’s Gate National Park, the Mau Escarpment, and Eburu Forest. The view is simply mind-blowing.
The crescent island is home to abundant wildlife and a known bird sanctuary on the eastern side of Lake Naivasha. It is home to Maasai giraffe, zebra, dik-dik, steenbok, impala, gazelles, warthogs, wildebeest, waterbuck, spring hare, bushbuck, elands, and buffaloes, among other animals. The lake has a lot of hippos, which are guaranteed to be seen from the island.
Crescent Island is home to a diverse range of birds, including the Fish Eagle, the Goliath Heron, the Bee-eater, the Eagle Owl, the Osprey, the Lapwing, the Plover, the Black Crake, and the Lily Trotter, among others.
Hell’s Gate National Park
Hell’s Gate National Park is one of the most popular places in Kenya and a major contributor to Kenya’s tourism industry. The park is south of Lake Naivasha in Kenya, north-west of Nairobi. Hell’s Gate National Park is named after a narrow break in the cliffs, once a tributary of a prehistoric lake that fed early humans in the Rift Valley. The park was established in 1984 and is one of the smaller but highly visited national parks in Kenya. It is known for its wide variety of wildlife and its awesome scenery. This includes the Fischer’s Tower and Central Tower columns and Hell’s Gate Gorge. The Hell Gate National Park is also home to five geothermal power stations at Olkaria, which contribute power to Kenya’s national grid. The park is equipped with three basic campsites and includes a Maasai Cultural Center, which holds the history, behavior, and records of the Maasai tribe’s culture and traditions. The park was named for the intense geothermal activity within its boundaries. Hell’s Gate National Park is an outstanding piece of the Great Rift Valley. Spectacular scenery, including the towering cliffs, water-gouged gorges, stark rock towers, scrub-clad volcanoes, and belching plumes of geothermal steam, make it one of the most atmospheric parks in Africa. Hell’s Gate is an ideal venue for a day trip from Nairobi, where visitors can enjoy mountain biking, rock climbing, and a natural spa.
Mount Longonot
The Maasai word Oloonong’ot, which means mountains with many spurs or steep ridges, was used to name Mt. Longonot National Park.The park has an area of 52 km2 and is located southeast of Lake Naivasha. The mountain was formed from viscous and sticky lava that does not flow easily. The lava then accumulates around the vent, forming a volcano with steep sides. The park is 27.2 kilometers from the nearby town of Naivasha and 74.4 kilometers from Nairobi.
Mount Longonot is protected by the Kenya Wildlife Service as part of Mount Longonot National Park. A 3.1-kilometer nature walk trail starts at the park entrance, goes up to the crater rim, and continues in a 7.2-kilometer loop encircling the crater. The whole tour from the gate around the rim to the gate is about 13.5 kilometers, which takes about 4 to 5 hours, allowing for necessary rest breaks. Some parts of the trail are heavily eroded and very steep. The gate elevation is around 2150 m and the peak is at 2776 m, but following the jagged rim involves substantially more than the 630 m vertical difference. Mount Longonot is a stratovolcano that contains a large 8 x 12 km caldera formed by vast eruptions of trachytic lava some 21,000 years ago. The current summit cone was developed within the earlier caldera. This cone itself is capped by a 1.8-kilometer crater. The mountain has several parasitic cones, and effusive lava eruptions occur on the flanks and within the caldera floor. Periodic geodetic activity recorded at Longonot in 2004–2006 demonstrated the presence of active magmatic systems beneath this volcano. What is unique about this place is the thick forest that lies within the crater of the mountain. The crater rim has breath-taking scenic views across the beautiful Rift Valley all the way to Lake Naivasha. Some of the common wildlife attractions at Mount Longonot National Park include buffaloes, elands, lions, leopards, bushbucks, common zebras, giraffes, and Grant’s gazelles.
Olkaria Geothermal
There is the biggest geothermal power station called Olkaria Geothermal Station, the first of its kind in Africa. It was established in 1981 and generates geothermal power underneath Hell’s Gate from the area’s hot springs and geysers. Three more geothermal stations were added after 2000: Olkaria II, Olkaria III, and Olkaria IV. Construction of the 140 MW Olkaria V began in 2017. As of 2019, a significant part of the Hell’s Gate National Park has turned into an industrial area, with many pipelines, power plants, and busy tarmac roads.
Lake Naivasha Crater
Crater Lake is a private sanctuary located approximately 39 kilometers from Naivasha Town. It is a sanctuary that has plenty of wildlife and birds and can be explored on foot so as to get close to wildlife in their natural, undisturbed habitat. Some of the animals to be seen in Crater Lake are buffalo, bushbuck, eland, impalas, hyenas, waterbuck, hippopotamuses, giraffes, zebras, grant gazelles, warthogs, wildebeest, baboons, white and black colobus monkeys, and vervet monkeys, among others.
The private sanctuary is also known as a birding destination in Kenya, and it is one of the best birding areas in Naivasha. The little grebe, Egyptian Goose, cordon blue, Nightjar, oriole, Fish Eagle, pied kingfisher, yellow-billed storks, and waterfowl are among the birds to be seen.
Crater Lake Naivasha is one of the easier and more moderate craters to hike. The total distance covered during the hike is 5 kilometers, which takes about 2 hours and 16 minutes to complete. The maximum elevation point is 3,030 meters and the minimum elevation point is 1,908 meters, with well-marked trails to follow.
The Crater Lake has one camp named after the crater lake, which includes a tent camp with ten permanent tent camps and four family-style rooms with interconnecting doors.
