# Arusha National Park > Mount Meru, the Momella lakes, and a park you can walk in. Canonical: https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/arusha Edited by: Kabeer Dalvi (https://seeyoutanzania.com/about) ## At a glance - **Managed by:** TANAPA - **Area:** 322 km² - **Established:** 1960 - **Region:** Arusha Region - **Best time:** Year-round; clearest June–October ## The park Small, close to the city, and consistently overlooked by people rushing west towards the Serengeti. Arusha National Park packs three distinct landscapes into 322 square kilometres: the forested **Ngurdoto Crater**, the alkaline **Momella lakes**, and the slopes of **Mount Meru** rising to about 4,562 metres. Meru is a volcano whose eastern wall collapsed in an enormous landslide, leaving a horseshoe caldera open to the north-east and an ash cone standing inside it. The climb takes three or four days, is spectacular, and is used by many climbers as acclimatisation before Kilimanjaro — which is visible from the summit ridge on a clear morning. What sets it apart is how easily you can get out of the vehicle. **Walking safaris** with an armed ranger, canoeing on the Momella lakes and the Meru climb all start within an hour of the city. Walking changes the experience entirely: giraffe and buffalo at ground level, and colobus moving overhead in the forest. ## Wildlife - Giraffe - Colobus monkey - Buffalo - Flamingo - Bushbuck - Warthog ## What to do ### Walking safari with a ranger Close to town, short, and a different way of seeing the park. ### Momella lakes Shallow, alkaline, different colours, and usually carrying flamingo. ### Ngurdoto Crater A forested caldera viewed from the rim — buffalo and warthog on the floor below. ### Mount Meru, three to four days Serious, beautiful, and excellent preparation for Kilimanjaro. ## Getting there About 40 minutes from Arusha, and 30 from Kilimanjaro International — easily done on an arrival or departure day. ## The park you are allowed to walk in Almost everything that makes Arusha National Park worth a day follows from one fact: **there are no resident lions**. Where there are no lions, TANAPA permits things it permits almost nowhere else — walking safaris, canoeing, cycling and horse riding, all of them official activities with published fees rather than operator improvisation. This matters more than it sounds. On the rest of the northern circuit you experience the country through a windscreen. Here you can stand in it. Walking changes the scale of everything: buffalo are much larger on foot, the forest has a smell and a sound, and a giraffe that ignores a vehicle will watch you carefully. TANAPA maintains **six nature trails** for the purpose, running from the Momella gate to Itikoni, to the Tululusia waterfall and up to the Ngurdoto crater rim. You still walk with an armed ranger, because buffalo and elephant are quite capable of killing you and buffalo in particular are bad-tempered at close range. But the risk profile is genuinely different from a park with big cats in it, and that is why this is the one place near Arusha where a first-time visitor can safely get out of the car. The lions are said to have disappeared during the 1990s. We have not found a reliable account of why, and the explanations in circulation — disease, conflict with herders outside the boundary, simple small-population collapse — are guesses. What is certain is that they are not there now. ## Mount Meru, and the hole in its side Meru is a **stratovolcano of about 4,562 metres** — Tanzania's second mountain, and one of the more dramatic in Africa for a reason you can see from the Momella road. Its entire eastern side is missing. Roughly **7,800 years ago the summit collapsed**, leaving a horseshoe caldera five kilometres across, open to the east. The collapse sent a debris avalanche and lahars down the mountain that travelled far enough to reach **the western flank of Kilimanjaro**, seventy kilometres away. What you look into now from the crater rim is the inside of the mountain, with a symmetrical **ash cone** standing on the floor where the volcano restarted afterwards. It is not extinct. The Smithsonian's Global Volcanism Program records the last eruption as **October to December 1910**, explosive and effusive activity at the ash cone, and there was activity in the late nineteenth century before that. **The climb takes three or four days**, and TANAPA recommends four to allow for acclimatisation: first night at Miriakamba (2,500 m), second at the Saddle, third back at Miriakamba, out on the fourth day. It is a serious walk, considerably steeper than most Kilimanjaro routes, and the final ridge above the ash cone at sunrise is the part people remember. Many climbers use it as acclimatisation before [Kilimanjaro](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/kilimanjaro), which stands on the eastern horizon in the dawn. One consequence of the country it crosses: the Meru climb begins with a walk through big game, so an **armed ranger accompanies every ascent**. TANAPA charges it as a published fee rather than leaving it to the operator — USD 15 per group per day on the 2023/24 schedule — which is not something the Kilimanjaro routes require. ## Three landscapes in an afternoon The park's real trick is compression. In a single circuit you pass through montane forest, open grassland, a crater floor and a string of lakes, and the transitions are abrupt enough to notice. **Ngurdoto Crater** is the southern half: a pear-shaped caldera about three kilometres across, floored with swamp and grass and ringed by dense forest. TANAPA calls it a miniature of Ngorongoro and the comparison holds, with one important difference — **you may not drive down into it**. You look in from viewpoints on the rim, of which Leitong is the highest, and from there on a clear morning you can see Kilimanjaro, the Momella lakes and the farmland below. The buffalo on the floor stay a long way off. **Serengeti Ndogo** — Little Serengeti — is a stretch of open grass in the north that behaves like a fragment of plains dropped into the forest. It holds the park's giraffe, zebra, warthog and waterbuck, and it is the one part of Arusha that photographs like a conventional safari. **The Momella lakes** are seven shallow alkaline lakes fed from underground rather than by rivers. Because each has a slightly different mineral content, each grows different algae, and so **each lake is a different colour** — blue-green next to rust next to grey, sometimes within a few hundred metres. Flamingos work the shallows, and canoeing is permitted on Small Momella. Between them run the set pieces: the **Fig Tree Arch**, a *Ficus thoningii* whose roots have grown into an arch wide enough to drive a vehicle through, and the **Tululusia waterfall**, twenty-eight metres down a narrow volcanic gorge. ## Colobus, and what you will not see The animal to come for is the **black-and-white colobus**, which is common in the Ngurdoto forest and difficult to see well anywhere else on the northern circuit. They are large, spectacularly marked, and spend their time high in the canopy, so the walking trails and the forest road are where you meet them — usually as a crash of movement overhead, then a long tail hanging below a branch. Blue monkeys and olive baboon share the same forest. The open country holds **giraffe** in good numbers, along with zebra, buffalo, warthog, waterbuck, bushbuck and reedbuck. Elephant occur but are uncommon and shy. **Leopard** are present and very rarely seen. TANAPA records **over 400 bird species**, and the forest is the draw: Narina and bar-tailed trogon, silvery-cheeked hornbill, turaco, and crested guineafowl on the tracks. The Momella lakes carry flamingo, pelican and a long list of waterfowl. **What is not here matters too.** No lion, no rhino, and cheetah do not occur — so this is not the park for a first-and-only safari if the Big Five are the point. Come for what it does have: forest, a volcano, and permission to walk. ## Getting in, what it costs, and how long it takes The park is **about 32 km from Arusha by road** and 40 km from Kilimanjaro International Airport, which makes it the only national park in Tanzania you can realistically visit on an arrival or departure day. A half day covers Ngurdoto and Little Serengeti; a full day adds the Momella lakes and a walk. **Fees.** TANAPA's published 2023/24 schedule puts Arusha in the same band as [Tarangire](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/tarangire) and [Lake Manyara](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/lake-manyara): **USD 50 for a non-East African adult in peak season, USD 45 in low**, with USD 15 for children aged 5 to 15 and TZS 10,000 for East African citizens. **All of it is exclusive of 18 per cent VAT**, so what you actually pay is USD 59.00 and USD 53.10. Low season is only 15 March to 15 May. **The activities are charged separately, and cheaply.** A short walking safari of one to four hours is USD 20 for an adult, a long walk over four hours USD 25, horse riding USD 50, cycling USD 25, and a ranger for the Meru climb USD 15 per group per day. These are official TANAPA rates from the same schedule, and they are the reason a day here costs a fraction of a day anywhere else on the circuit. **Staying.** There are three public campsites, a rest house and mountain huts at Miriakamba (96 beds) and the Saddle (112 beds) for Meru climbers, at USD 30 a night. Momella Wildlife Lodge and Hatari Lodge are inside the park; plenty more sits just outside, and most visitors simply sleep in [Arusha](https://seeyoutanzania.com/guides/arusha). **Best time.** TANAPA gives June to September and December to early March. The long rains from March to May make the forest tracks difficult, though they also make it green and empty. Meru can be climbed year-round but is most reliable in the dry months. Note: Fees are from TANAPA's own 2023/24 tariff schedule, the most recent published, and are quoted exclusive of 18 per cent VAT. They may have risen since; confirm before budgeting. ## A cattle ranch, and the name that changed The land was a **cattle ranch from 1907**, run under German and then British administration, and the farmhouse at Momella is still there — the Hatari Lodge takes its name from *Hatari!*, the 1962 John Wayne film shot around the Momella lakes, after which the German actor Hardy Krüger bought the farm and stayed. It became a national park in **1960**, but under a different name: **Ngurdoto Crater National Park**, covering only the crater and its forest. **Mount Meru was annexed in 1967** and the enlarged park was renamed Arusha National Park, reaching its present **322 square kilometres**. That history explains an oddity you may meet in print. Older and second-hand sources still give the park's area as 137 km², which was roughly its size before Meru was added. TANAPA's own figure, and the one used here, is 322. ## Common questions ### Can you walk in Arusha National Park? Yes, and it is the main reason to come. There are no resident lions, so TANAPA permits walking safaris, canoeing, cycling and horse riding as official activities. You walk with an armed ranger because of buffalo and elephant, and there are six maintained nature trails. A short walk of one to four hours is USD 20 for an adult under the 2023/24 schedule. ### Are there lions in Arusha National Park? No. There are no resident lions, which is precisely why walking is allowed here and almost nowhere else on the northern circuit. They are said to have disappeared during the 1990s, though we have not found a reliable account of why. Leopard are present but very rarely seen, and there are no rhino and no cheetah. ### How long does it take to climb Mount Meru? Three or four days, and TANAPA recommends four for acclimatisation: Miriakamba hut at 2,500 m, then the Saddle, then back to Miriakamba, out on the fourth day. It is steeper than most Kilimanjaro routes and much quieter, and many climbers use it as acclimatisation before Kilimanjaro. A ranger accompanies every ascent because the walk starts through big game. ### Is Arusha National Park worth visiting? Yes, if you understand what it is. It is not a Big Five park — no lion, rhino or cheetah. It is a forest-and-volcano park half an hour from the city where you can get out of the vehicle, see colobus monkeys properly, and look into a crater. It is also the only Tanzanian park you can sensibly fit into an arrival or departure day. ### How much does Arusha National Park cost to enter? TANAPA's published 2023/24 schedule sets USD 50 per non-East African adult per 24 hours in peak season and USD 45 in low, exclusive of 18 per cent VAT — so USD 59.00 and USD 53.10 in practice. Low season runs only from 15 March to 15 May. Walking, cycling, riding and the Meru ranger are charged separately and are inexpensive. ### Why are the Momella lakes different colours? They are fed from underground rather than by rivers, and each lake has a slightly different mineral content. Different minerals support different algae, and the algae give each lake its colour — so neighbouring lakes a few hundred metres apart can be visibly different shades. ### Can you drive into the Ngurdoto Crater? No. Vehicles are not allowed down onto the crater floor; you view it from points on the rim, of which Leitong is the highest. On a clear morning Kilimanjaro, the Momella lakes and the farmland below are all visible from the rim. ## Checked against - [Arusha National Park — official page](https://www.tanzaniaparks.go.tz/nationalparks/arusha), TANAPA - [Tanzania National Parks Tariffs 2023/2024 — schedule to GN No. 490A of 2020](https://www.tanzaniaparks.go.tz/uploads/publications/en-1688147569-TARIFFS%20Design%20202324.pdf), TANAPA - [Arusha National Park — official park brochure](https://www.tanzaniaparks.go.tz/uploads/ARUSHA_NP_b878de91ff.pdf), TANAPA - [Meru — eruptive history and 7,800-year summit collapse](https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=222110), Smithsonian Institution, Global Volcanism Program - [Mount Meru](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Meru_(Tanzania)), Wikipedia - [Arusha National Park](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arusha_National_Park), Wikipedia ## Related - [All the parks](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks)