Crater Lake Game Sanctuary Naivasha

Crater Lake Game Sanctuary is one of Kenya’s most enchanting and intimate wildlife destinations, a small, private 10,000-acre sanctuary centred around a stunning saline-alkaline volcanic crater lake known as Crater Lake or Sonachi, on the western shore of Lake Naivasha in the Great Rift Valley.

Located just 10 km from Naivasha town and approximately 90 km from Nairobi, it offers an extraordinary escape into a world of emerald-green waters, ancient forests, and rich wildlife within easy reach of the capital.

The crater lake itself is a natural spectacle, its alkaline waters shifting mesmerisingly from deep blue to vivid emerald green and back again with each passing hour, depending on the light and algae content.

The lake is held in high regard by the local Maasai, who believe its water has healing properties for ailing cattle. Depending on water levels across the Rift Valley, the lake can host large populations of both greater and lesser flamingos, adding a further splash of colour to an already extraordinary landscape.

The sanctuary is also historically significant, housing the famous hilltop grave where Happy Valley’s tragic heroine, Lady Diana Delamere, is buried alongside her last two husbands, Gilbert Colvile and Thomas Delamere, a landmark that draws history enthusiasts and nature lovers alike.

Location & Accessibility

Crater Lake Game Sanctuary is located on the western shore of Lake Naivasha in the Great Rift Valley, approximately 90 km from Nairobi and 10 km from Naivasha town. It sits immediately adjacent to Hell’s Gate National Park and close to Mount Longonot National Park, making it ideal for combining multiple destinations in a single trip.

By Roa

✓ Route: Well-tarred road to Naivasha; final approach roads may be murram a 4WD is advisable
✓ From Nairobi: Drive via the Nakuru Highway (A104) approximately 90 km, taking around 1.5 to 2 hours depending on traffic
✓ From Naivasha Town: 10 km west of Naivasha town, north of the village of Kongoni; follow signs toward the sanctuary from the main road

By Air

✓ Nearest Airstrip: Naivasha Airstrip serves as the closest air access point to the sanctuary
✓ Ground Transfer: From Naivasha Airstrip, arrange road transport for the short drive to the sanctuary
✓ From Nairobi: Charter flights available from Wilson Airport to Naivasha Airstrip, approximately 20 to 30 minutes by air

Ecosystem & Landscape

The sanctuary’s landscape is a captivating blend of volcanic geology, ancient forest, open plains, and the unique micro-ecosystem of the crater lake itself.

✓ Open Plains: Grassland plains beyond the crater supporting herds of giraffe, impala, buffalo, and gazelles
✓ Papyrus Reed Beds: Dense papyrus beds around the lake margins, home to numerous warblers and waterbirds
✓ Volcanic Crater Rim: The walkable rim of the ancient volcano provides dramatic views down to the emerald lake below and across the broader Naivasha landscape
✓ Yellow Fever Tree Forest: Thick woodland of yellow fever trees surrounding the crater, providing habitat for colobus monkeys, baboons, and a wide variety of forest birds
✓ Crater Lake (Sonachi): A small saline-alkaline lake at the bottom of an extinct volcano; its waters shift from blue to emerald green hourly; fringed by dense yellow fever tree forest and papyrus reed beds

Wildlife

Despite its compact size, Crater Lake Game Sanctuary has recorded 38 mammal species across its varied habitats. The sanctuary’s position adjacent to Hell’s Gate National Park allows wildlife to move freely through game corridors, bringing a surprisingly diverse range of species into the sanctuary.

Mammals

✓ Other Mammals: Warthog, bushpig, and porcupine
✓ Antelopes: Eland, impala, Thomson’s gazelle, kongoni (Coke’s hartebeest), bushbuck, common duiker, Kirk’s dik-dik, steinbok, and bohor reedbuck
✓ Primates: Black-and-white colobus monkeys, vervet monkeys, and olive baboons are commonly seen in the yellow fever tree woodland around the crater
✓ Large Mammals: Masai giraffes, Cape buffalo, hippopotamus (large population regularly seen in the shallow waters during the day and grazing on lawns at night), and Defassa waterbuck
✓ Predators & Nocturnal Species: Leopard, serval, hyena, jackal, bat-eared fox, aardvark, honey badger, spring hare, Senegal galago, and common genet, many best seen on night game drives

Birdlife

With over 170 recorded bird species, Crater Lake Game Sanctuary is a premier birdwatching destination in the Naivasha region. The alkaline lake, papyrus reed beds, yellow fever forest, and open grasslands each support a distinct community of birds.

✓ Other Notable Species: Yellow-necked spurfowl, white-faced whistling duck, and numerous migratory species
✓ Best Birdwatching: Dawn bird walks around the crater lake and through the yellow fever tree forest are particularly rewarding
✓ Raptors: Majestic African fish eagles are a constant presence; whiskered tern, little grebe, Cape teal, ruffs, and coqui francolin have also been recorded
✓ Forest & Garden Birds: Robin chats, sunbirds, fire finches, cordon bleu, weavers, ibis, kite, and a wide variety of warblers breeding in the papyrus reed beds
✓ Flamingos: Greater and lesser flamingos gather on the lake in large numbers, depending on Rift Valley water levels, one of the sanctuary’s most spectacular wildlife spectacles
✓ Waterbirds: African fish eagle, great white pelican, yellow-billed stork, marabou stork, pied kingfisher, grey heron, black-headed heron, pied avocet, African jacana, long-toed plover, Egyptian goose, white-faced whistling duck, yellow-billed duck, and various cormorants

Activities

Within the Sanctuary

✓ Horse Riding: Guided horse rides through the sanctuary’s landscape
✓ Candlelit Lake Dinners: Romantic al fresco dining experiences by the crater lake
✓ Boating on Crater Lake: Peaceful boat trips on the striking emerald-green crater lake
✓ Stargazing: The sanctuary’s remote location and minimal light pollution make for exceptional stargazing conditions
✓ Historical Tours: Visit the famous hilltop grave of Lady Diana Delamere and learn about the colourful and turbulent history of the Happy Valley set
✓ Bird Walks: Guided birdwatching walks through the sanctuary’s diverse habitats; 170+ species including flamingos, fish eagles, and a wealth of forest and waterbirds
✓ Day & Night Game Drives: Day drives for giraffe, buffalo, impala, and plains game; night drives revealing servals, bat-eared foxes, spring hares, galagos, and other nocturnal species
✓ Crater Rim Sundowners: Watch the sun set over the Rift Valley from the dramatic rim of the extinct volcano, with views down to the emerald-green lake below at Leopard Rock viewpoint
✓ Escorted Game Walks: Guided nature walks around the volcanic crater and across the open plains, one of the sanctuary’s signature experiences; buffaloes may be encountered in the woodland, so ranger escorts are recommended

Day Excursions from the Sanctuary:

✓ Lentolia Manor: Tea at this charming Edwardian manor house
✓ Fly Camping: Overnight camping on the floor of the volcanic crater
✓ Great Rift Valley Lodge: 8-hole golf course with panoramic Rift Valley views
✓ Lake Nakuru National Park: Day trip to one of Africa’s greatest bird spectacles, the flamingo-fringed Lake Nakuru
✓ Mount Longonot National Park: Hike the crater rim of the Rift Valley’s most dramatic volcano, just a short drive away
✓ Lake Naivasha: Boat trips, black bass fishing, dinghy sailing, and birdwatching on Kenya’s only freshwater Rift Valley lake
✓ Crescent Island Conservancy: Walk freely among zebra, waterbuck, and gazelles on this submerged volcanic crater island on Lake Naivasha
✓ Hell’s Gate National Park: Walk or mountain bike alongside buffalo, zebra, eland, and giraffe in Kenya’s most unique national park, directly adjacent to the sanctuary
✓ Elsamere Conservation Centre: Visit the former home of Joy Adamson of Born Free fame on the shores of Lake Naivasha; 200 bird species on the grounds; hippos graze the lawns at night

Climate & Best Time to Visit

✓ Stargazing: Best during the dry seasons when skies are consistently clear
✓ Year-Round Destination: Crater Lake Game Sanctuary can be visited at any time of year
✓ Flamingo Viewing: Variable and unpredictable, dependent on water levels of other Rift Valley lakes; can be spectacular at any time of year
✓ Dry Seasons: January to February and June to September offer the best wildlife viewing and most comfortable conditions for walking and game drives
✓ Rainy Seasons: March to May (long rains) and October to November (short rains), the sanctuary remains beautiful and green; flamingo numbers on the lake may increase with changing water levels across the Rift Valley

Accommodation

Accommodation at Crater Lake Game Sanctuary is intimate and atmospheric, with options to suit both overnight guests and day visitors.

Inside the Sanctuary

✓ Crater Lake Camp: A magical lakeside tented camp tucked inside the extinct volcano, welcomes both day and overnight guests; facilities include safe and secure parking, conference facilities, laundry, game drives, guided walks, hiking trails, and a campsite

Nearby (Naivasha Area)

✓ Naivasha Kongoni Lodge: Comfortable lodge with cottages and luxury tents near Lake Naivasha
✓ Lake Naivasha Sopa Resort: Approximately 35 km away on the shores of Lake Naivasha; luxury resort with pools, restaurants, and lake views
✓ Great Rift Valley Lodge & Golf Resort: Perched on the escarpment edge with panoramic Rift Valley views; 18-hole golf course and full resort facilities
✓ Crater Lake Tented Camp: A camp situated on the shores of the crater lake, combining adventure with comfort in en-suite tents, a restaurant, and guided nature walks

Notes

* Child refers to persons from three years but below 11 years
* Resident refers to persons of other nationalities residing in Kenya with valid documentation from the Kenyan government
* Citizen – A native or inhabitant of East African countries (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, and South Sudan) with valid identification documents or passport
* Daily – Fee paid for a single entry to a national park, national reserve, or sanctuary, and which shall be valid for no longer than twenty-four hours

Crater Lake is an extinct volcanic crater at Naivasha’s western end and is thickly wooded with yellow fever trees, where troops of black-and-white colobus, vervet monkeys, and olive baboons can be seen.

A total of 38 mammal species have been recorded here; buffaloes, warthogs, Defassa waterbucks, bushbucks, Thomson’s gazelles, and impalas can be seen by walking around the crater, while night game drives allow sightings of spring hares, Senegal galagos, common genets, white-tailed mongooses, and predators such as servals and bat-eared foxes.

Antelopes shelter in the dense vegetation (Kirk’s dik-dik, steinbocks, and elands). As for birds, there are plenty of cormorants, pelicans, herons, jacanas, long-toed plovers, and weavers, while numerous warblers breed in the papyrus reed beds. Others include White-faced Whistling-Duck, Egyptian Goose, Yellow-billed Duck, Coqui Francolin, Yellow-necked Spurfowl, Little Grebe, etc.

Wildlife highlights: hippos, black and white colobus, olive baboons, vervet monkeys, buffaloes, Masai giraffes, kongonis, impalas, and gazelles. Water birds are a highlight, including African fish eagles, pied kingfishers, yellow-billed storks, flamingos, and waterfowl.

Crater Lake has a large population of hippos, which are regularly seen snorting and laughing in the shallow waters. At night, they troop out to feed on the lawns of the hotels and the lush grass of the riparian fringes.

Vervet monkeys and olive baboons live in the woodland adjoining the south-western shore, and the game corridors that run from nearby Hell’s Gate NP allow buffaloes, kongoni antelopes, and Masai giraffes to access the shores.

Elsamere Conservation Centre

Once the home of Joy Adamson of ‘Born Free’ fame, Elsamere Conservation Centre offers a wide range of education facilities while hippos graze on the lawns at night and black and white colobus swing from the yellow fever trees. There are 200 bird species on its grounds alone.

Crescent Island Conservancy

Crescent Island is a submerged volcanic crater and a good place to view zebras, waterbucks, and gazelles. It is also home to the Naivasha Yacht Club. Boats can be hired at Elsamere, Fisherman’s Camp, and the Lake Naivasha Country Club.

Hell’s Gate National Park

Cleft deep into the floor of the Rift Valley, the towering cliffs and undulating grasslands of this relatively small park offer the only venue in Kenya where you can walk, or mountain bike, alongside herds of buffalo, zebra, eland, hartebeest, Thomson’s gazelle, and giraffe, unaccompanied by a KWS ranger.

A volcanic landscape of tortured basalt cliffs, circling raptors, winding water-gouged gorges, stark rock towers, scrub-clad volcanoes, sultry steaming vents, and belching plumes of geothermal steam, this park is pure theatre, and has provided the backdrop to many a Hollywood movie.

Mountain bikes can be hired at the gate, community guides offer tours of the dramatic gorge (where boiling water spouts from the rock), and professional climbers offer climbing lessons on the park’s two massive volcanic plugs.

Wildlife highlights: Eland, buffalo, lion, giraffe, zebra, leopard, impala, Grant’s and Thomson’s gazelle, klipspringer, hyrax, and mountain reedbuck. Birds: 103 recorded species.

Mount Longonot National Park

Immediately adjacent to Hell’s Gate National Park lies Mount Longonot, the mightiest of the Rift Valley volcanoes, which towers some 2, 776 m above the floor of the Rift, and broods over Lake Naivasha. Climbing up takes around an hour, to tour the rim for 2-3 hours. Getting down is faster.

Crater Lake Bird Watching

Crater Lake offers special escapes for a wide variety of visitors. Bird-watchers will thrill (and trill!) the 170 species of birds that live in and around the crater. 

The alkaline lake changes from blue to emerald green and back again with each passing hour, and is the nesting place for a myriad of birds – majestic fish eagles, busy weavers, cheeky robin chats, as well as ibis, kite, ducks, sunbirds, fire finches, and the tiny and colorful cordon bleu.

Day or game drives at night

You could see giraffes, elands, bushbucks, jackals, baboons, colobus and vervet monkeys, hyenas, warthogs, hippos, dik-diks, kongoni, duiker, serval, aardvark, badgers, or even leopard.

Escorted walking Safaris

Nature walks around the crater or across the plains.

Sundowners

Sundowners at Leopard Rock overlooking Crater Lake.

Visit Lake Naivasha

Visit Lake Naivasha town, or other local attractions such as the Elsamere Conservation Centre, Elmenteita Weavers, Campbell Clause Gallery, or the Cave of God.

Things to do at Crater Lake

• Bird walks
• Stargazing
• Horse riding
• Night drives
• Historical tours
• Boating on the lake
• Escorted game walks
• Crater rim sundowners
• Candlelit “lake dinners.”

Day Excursions from the Crater

• Fly camping on the crater floor
• Joy Adamson’s home at Elsamere
• Dinghy sailing on Lake Naivasha
• Black Bass fishing on Lake Naivasha
• Tea at the Edwardian manor of Lentolia
• Game drives in Hell’s Gate National Park
• Climbing and hiking on Mount Longonot
• 8-hole golf course at Great Rift Valley Lodge
• Lake Nakuru National Park “the world’s greatest Bird Spectacle.” 

Crater Lake Game Sanctuary is a green soda lake at the bottom of an extinct volcano on the western side of Lake Naivasha and north of the village of Kongoni, in Naivasha.  Crater Lake Game Sanctuary is located 10 kilometers from Naivasha town and about 90 km from Nairobi.

This is a small private sanctuary centered around a volcanic crater lake with spectacular green water. The tiny jade-green crater lake is held in high regard by the local Masai, who even believe its water helps soothe ailing cattle. The lake attracts many flamingos, and the surrounding forests and plains have plenty of game.

Like Hell’s Gate National Park, it is allowed to explore this Park on foot independently or with a local guide. The sanctuary is home to hundreds of bird species and many mammals, both large and small. While walking through the conservancy you can spot giraffes, impala, Thompson’s gazelle, giraffe, zebra, eland, baboon, and black and white colobus monkeys – just to name a few.

While walking, remember that buffaloes lurk in the woods. You can also take a short walk to the rim of the beautiful volcanic crater, with views down to the emerald-green lake. Depending on the water levels of other Rift Valley lakes, there are sometimes large populations of flamingoes on the lake.

Crater Lake Game Sanctuary is a haven for birds, with over 170 species recorded. These include greater and lesser Flamingos, little Grebes, Cape Teal and Ruffs, great white Pelican, whiskered Tern, Marabou stork, grey and black-headed Heron, African Fish Eagle, Yellow-billed Storks, Pied Avocets, Egyptian Geese, etc.

Tucked away inside the extinct volcano is Crater Lake Camp, which offers guests a truly unique experience. This magical lakeside camp welcomes both day and overnight guests and is the perfect stopover en route to Lake Nakuru and the Masai Mara game parks, as well as a romantic getaway by itself!

Crater Lake camp offers safe & secure parking, conference facilities, laundry, game drives, guided Walks, hiking trails, and a campsite.  Crater Lake Game Sanctuary is 10,000 acres and houses the famous hilltop grave where Happy Valley’s tragic heroine, Lady Diana Delamere, is buried with her last two husbands, Gilbert Colvile and Thomas Delamere.

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