Lake Manyara National Park

Situated in the northern region of Tanzania, Lake Manyara National Park is famous for hosting one of the Africa’s rare tree climbing lions. The tree climbing lions were famous in South Africa’s Krugar National Park, and Queen Elizabeth National Park of Uganda. It’s a small park covering an area of 325km², and the largest area of 230km² is Lake Surface.

This small park in the Great Rift Valley escarpment is among Tanzania’s major natural treasures hosting a great banquet of bigger games. Since 1920s the lake as important for sports fishing, but reserved a game reserve status in 1957, and was fully named a national park in 1960 and as established as a UNESCO in 1981 as part Man and Biosphere program.

Features of Lake Manyara National Park

The park features a diverse ecosystem formed of alkaline lake, ground water forests, acacia woodlands, grassy plains and natural hot springs. The Alkaline shallow Lake Manyara is a prominent feature with vibrant pink flamingo population of salty deposits. The vast Great Rift Valley Escarpment which has a stunning dramatic view of natural backdrop.

This amazing park is home to variety of animals among which include; the famous tree climbing lions which are almost the major tourist attraction of the park, larger numbers of wildebeests, elephants, buffaloes, giraffes, zebras leopards, various monkeys, hippos, several antelope species and many more together with over 300 bird species are recorded at the park.

Accessing Lake Manyara National Park

The park is located about 126km southwest of Arusha city, and with a good safari customized 4wd car can take about 1 and a half hour of driving. The park is well situated to the northern circuit which connects to famous destinations like Serengeti and Ngorongoro.

Adventures done at Lake Manyara National Park

Game drives

Much of the animals at residing at this amazing park are seen during a game drive done through various driving tracks. Game drives at Manyara National Park are arranged for both day and night drives and the night drives offer a great view of the nocturnal especially a chance when carnivals are actively hunting. Game drives are done with a fulltime 4wd safari customized car with a rooftop for perfect game views.

Canoeing at Lake Manyara

One of the few places in Tanzania where you can do and enjoy wildlife along waters, taking a canoe on this alkaline lake rewarding your with a lot views mainly along the shores of the lake. There are numerous opportunities of watching aquatic life, water birds and land mammals coming to draw water from the lake shores. Among the few sights are hippos, flamingos, and monitor lizards among others.

Walking Safaris

There are arrangements from the park management for travelers to explore this park on foot. This leads you closer to nature and has a face to face encounter with several animals.  A guided safari walk is done alongside armed and experienced ranger guides from the park management.

Canopy walk

One of the exciting adventures to undertake when visited Lake Manyara is walking on sagging and suspended ropes. Lake Manyara Treetop Walkway offers a unique canopy walk safari experience in Tanzania. The 370-meter-long suspended walkway allows visitors to stroll among the treetops, providing a bird’s-eye view of the forest and its wildlife, including monkeys, birds, and butterflies. The walk begins on a boardwalk and gradually rises to a maximum height of 18 meters, with viewing platforms offering opportunities to observe the unique ecosystem from an elevated perspective.