Kilimanjaro day hike to Maundi Crater

Maundi Crater is a small, natural depression on the southeastern slope of Mount Kilimanjaro. Day visitors regularly hike there and back for a beautiful day's outing. Not only is the crater itself very pretty, but the views from its rim are incredible too! The crater is also surrounded by thick, very attractive rainforest.

Tangled rainforest on the rim of Maundi Crater

Maundi Crater can be found on the southeastern slope of Mt Kilimanjaro at 2,720 m (8,924 ft) above sea level (asl). As such, it sits within Kilimanjaro National Park.

The crater is located within the mountain's rainforest band, which is one of the five climate and vegetation zones encircling Kilimanjaro. It's also only one kilometre to the northeast of Mandara Hut, the hutted campsite used by Kilimanjaro climbers trekking the Marangu route.

A section of the Marangu route you walk en route to Maundi Crater

Maundi Crater is a straight-forward day hike of about six or seven hours in total depending on your speed and number of rest stops. You start the hike at Marangu Gate, which is 1,860 m (6,102 ft) asl. As Maundi Crater is 2,720 m (8,924 ft) asl, you can see that you'll gain quite a bit of elevation during the upward portion of the hike.

The trail is 8 km (5 miles) each way and follows the well-trodden Marangu route, one of the seven routes leading to the top of Mt Kilimanjaro. This being the case, you can anticipate crossing paths with trekkers who are en route to or from the summit. A Maundi Crater day trip can be a nice way, in our opinion, to get a sense of the scale of Kilimanjaro before deciding if you actually want to climb it in its entirety one day.

Most tour operators (including us at Follow Alice) include a lunch stop at Mandara Hut as part of the Maundi Crater day hike itinerary.

The view north into Kenya from Maundi Crater's rim

Looking down into Maundi Crater from its rim, you'll see a shallow-ish depression covered in mostly thick grasses. The crater's soil isn't very fertile, so it's offers a bit of open land amidst all of the rainforest.

Happily, this break in the canopy means that when you stand on the crater rim you have a sweeping view over the mountain's undulating and forested foothills. On a clear day, you can also see the vast plains of Tsavo National Park in neighbouring Kenya!

Black-and-white colobus monkeys are commonly sighted on Kilimanjaro

One of the most exciting wild animals you'll hopefully spot during your Maundi Crater day hike is the Mt Kilimanjaro guereza (black-and-white colobus monkey). These Old World primates are arboreal, so be sure to lift your head while walking to ensure you don't miss them.

Also keep your eyes open during the hike for blue monkeys, aardvarks, tree hyraxes (rock rabbits), and three-horned chameleons. Some of the bird species to look for include various turacos, cinnamon-chested bee-eaters, African pittas, malachite kingfishers and African emerald cuckoos.

Thomson's red-hot poker in Maundi Crater

Maundi Crater itself isn't exactly a botany hotspot. That said, it's full of pretty tussocks of grass as well as a few plants like red hot pokers (in season). What will be more exciting overall on the flora side of things is admiring the trees and plants of the rainforest that you hike through to reach the crater.

Kilimanjaro's rainforest has many large trees, including East African camphor trees, which can reach 30 m (100 ft) in height and create a very shady canopy. The forest's undergrowth is thick and tangled, and includes various ferns, mosses, vines and flowering plants. Of especial note is the Kilimanjaro impatiens, as this dainty little showstopper grows nowhere else in the world.

The Kilimanjaro impatiens is endemic to Mt Kilimanjaro's rainforest

So what do you think? Are you keen to hike to Maundi Crater via Mandara Hut? We can take you! Just give us a shout and we'll be happy to arrange this exciting Kilimanjaro day hike for you.