Kenya's Other National Parks, From Meru in 1966 to Arabuko-Sokoke in 1990

Established in 1966, Meru covers about 870 square kilometers east of the town of Meru. Rainfall falls from 635 to 762 millimeters a year in the west to as little as 305 to 356 in the east, which produces tall grass and swamps, and the park is one of the places where George and Joy Adamson raised Elsa the lioness of Born Free.

Set up in 1967, this small park of about 20.7 square kilometers protects a mountain whose name is Maasai for big mountain, rising to 2,145 meters about 65 kilometers north of Nairobi. Near the summit lie the graves of Sir William Northrup McMillan and Lady Lucie beside the ruins of McMillan Castle.

Kenya gazetted its 169 square kilometer share of Mount Elgon in 1968, and Uganda added its larger share in 1992 for a combined 1,279 square kilometers. The extinct volcano is a water catchment for both the Nzoia and Turkwel rivers, and Kitum Cave is known for elephants that visit to mine salt from its walls.

Amboseli holds a core of about 392 square kilometers inside a much larger 8,000 square kilometer ecosystem that crosses into Tanzania beneath Mount Kilimanjaro. Its recorded year of establishment is 1974, and it is best known for close encounters with free-ranging elephant herds.

Also set up in 1974, Saiwa Swamp covers only about 3 square kilometers near Kitale, the smallest national park in Kenya. It exists to protect the sitatunga antelope, whose elongated, splayed hooves carry it through mud but leave it vulnerable on firmer ground.

Gazetted as a national park in 1983 after beginning as the Lambwe Valley Game Reserve in 1966, Ruma covers about 120 square kilometers near Homa Bay. It protects Kenya's only wild population of roan antelope, only around 40 animals, and is a designated Important Bird Area with more than 400 species recorded.

Established in 1986, this is the first marine stop on the trail: a 10 square kilometer strictly protected park inside a 200 square kilometer reserve off Mombasa. Water of 25 to 31 degrees Celsius all year draws snorkelers and divers to its reefs, and it is the most frequently visited of Kenya's marine parks.

Protected as a nature reserve in 1973, Kora became a national park in 1989 after conservationist George Adamson was murdered by poachers. Its 1,788 square kilometers of acacia bushland rise to granite inselbergs, the highest being Mansumbi at 488 meters, with the Tana River forming the northern boundary.

Designated in 1989 as an IUCN Category II park on the Dawa River along the Ethiopian border in Mandera County, Malka Mari is among the least visited national parks in Kenya. Its wildlife includes Somali giraffe and the first confirmed East African population of Hamadryas baboons.

Gazetted in 1990, the last park on the trail protects a core of only 6 square kilometers inside the 420 square kilometer Arabuko-Sokoke Forest Reserve near Malindi. The forest is rich in endemic species, including Clarke's weaver, the Sokoke scops owl and the golden-rumped elephant shrew.