Mount Elgon National Park is located 470 kms away from Nairobi on the western border of Kenya with Uganda. Mount Elgon is Kenya’s second highest mountain. It is an ancient eroded volcano that erupted over 24 million years ago. On its summit is a huge flat-topped basalt column called Koitobos. The park is home to a variety of plants and wildlife, and it is endowed with a breathtaking panorama of cliffs, caves, waterfalls, gorges, mesas, calderas, hot springs, and the mountain peaks. The most popular areas to visit are the four vast caves, which are frequented by night-visitors such as elephants and buffaloes. These animals come to lick the natural salt found on the cave walls. The Kitum cave, with overhanging crystalline walls, enters 200 metres into the side of Mount Elgon. The breathtaking natural beauty of the park can be best appreciated from the Endebbe’s Bluff where one gets a panoramic view of the area’s escarpments, gorges, mesas, and rivers. The highest peak of Mount Elgon on the Kenyan side, Koitoboss, measures 13,852 feet (4,155 metres), and is easily reached by hikers in about two hours from the road’s end.