Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, national park in Uganda

Mgahinga Gorilla National Park covers 33.9 km² of the Virunga Mountains in southwestern Uganda, rising from 2,227 to 4,127 metres. It contains three inactive volcanoes: Mount Muhabura, Mount Gahinga and Mount Sabyinyo. Its vegetation runs from bamboo forest through Albertine Rift montane forest to tree heath and an alpine zone.

The area was designated as a game sanctuary by the British colonial administration in 1930 to protect mountain gorillas. National park status was granted officially only in 1991, as part of a cross-border conservation effort with Rwanda and Congo.

The name comes from Mount Gahinga, with the word referring to piles of volcanic stones that farmers once cleared from their fields. Visitors can walk through the forest with Batwa guides and learn about their traditional way of life in the woods.

The park sits about 14 kilometers from the town of Kisoro and is accessible via dirt roads that call for a four-wheel-drive vehicle. Permits for gorilla trekking should be booked several months ahead, as only a few slots are available each day.

One gorilla group, called the Nyakagezi family, regularly travels between Uganda, Rwanda, and Congo, crossing international borders. The golden monkeys live almost exclusively in the bamboo forests and are found only in this part of Uganda and neighboring Rwanda.