CRATER HIGHLANDS

Rising up from the floors of the Rift Valley, the Crater Highlands form a lush chain of mountains and volcanoes that includes the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and the surrounding Maasai tribal lands. Hiking safaris take visitors from Ngorongoro Crater to the foot of Ol Donyo Lengai and offer a chance to see some of the most spectacular and stunning scenery in Tanzania. Exploring this little-visited wilderness is the hiking adventure of a lifetime. Within the crater rim, large herds of zebra and wildebeest graze nearby while sleeping lions laze in the sun. At dawn, the endangered black rhino return to the thick cover of the crater forests after roaming the dew-laden grasslands in the morning mist. Just outside the crater’s ridge, Maasai herd their cattle and goats over green pastures through the highland slopes, living alongside the wildlife as they have for centuries.