Mount Longonot is a stratovolcano located southeast of Lake Naivasha in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya Africa. It’s thought to have last erupted in the 1860s and its name is derived from the Maasai word Oloonong ot meaning mountains of many surs or steep ridges. Mount Longonot is protected by Kenya Wildlife service as part of Mount Longonot National Park. A 3.1km trail runs from the park entrance up to the crater rim, and proceeds in a 7.2km loop surrounding the carter. The whole safari of 13.5km takes about 4-5 hours allowing for necessary rests breaks- parts of the trail are heavily eroded and very steep. The gate is around 2150m and the peak at 2780 m but following the jagged rim involves the substantially more than the 630m vertical difference.

Flora and Fauna

The forest of small trees covers the crater floor and small steam vents are also found spaced around the walls of the crater. The mountain is home to many species of wildlife, notably plains zebras, giraffes, Gazelles, buffaloes, hartebeest, and African leopards. Mount Longonot is 60km northwest of Nairobi and may be reached from Longonot. The Longonot statellite earth station is located south of the mountain. Longonot is a stratovolcano which contains a large caldera formed by vast eruptions of Trachytic lave some 21,000 years ago. The current summit cone was developed with in the earlier caldera. The cone itself is capped by a 1.8km crater. The mountain has several parasitic cones and effusive lava eruptions occur on the flanks and within the caldera floor.