Into Hells Gate

Welcome to Hell's Gate!!

After a quick stop in Nakuru for some supplies, and another stop just outside the park to pick up our guide (Simon) for the day (George is apparently not comfortable on a bike LOL) we made it to the park gates with little time to spare.  In fact we actually got the last 3 bikes for rent, just some simple mountain bike style bikes, good enough for us at this point.  This would prove to be a very long bike ride for my new bride, who doesn't like biking all that much.  It was a 2 km bike ride just to get into the park and then another 7KM to get to the top of the canyon.  Regardless of distance, energy and effort we both agreed that this experience was more then worth it.  The beauty of the natural landscape here was enough, throw in the countless zebra, gazelle, warthogs and giraffe, it was and incredible and breathtaking experience.  The park is set in the beautiful rift valley, with hanging ochre cliffs and jagged towering peaks.

Incredible Ochre Cliffs of Hell's Gate



Remnance of an ancient whirlpool



We stopped at the trail head and dug into the lunch that Gideon had packed for us.  After refueling, our real adventure in this park was just about to begin.  We were but 20 steps into this hike when we realized this was not going to be an easy task, which was fine by us since we have had little exercise so far on the trip.  The trail starts out with a steep narrow passage which leads to a path along a nearly dried out river bed.  After a few river crossings (very shallow, so no swimming needed at this point!) and some fairly technical downward climbs, we found ourselves right in the heart of the canyon. This area has been the site of several movies, the first one that comes to mind is Tomb Raider...where they are supposed to be in Tanzania heading toward the cradle of life?? Ya that's actually here in Naivasha!  The sculpting and shaping of the rocks over millions of years of water erosion is magnificent and neither of us have ever seen anything like it.  Our guide asked us if there was anything comparable to this in North America, and after lots of though, I still can't think of anything that's even remotely comparable to this place.  Unfortunately its one of those places that pictures really do little or no justice at all, its a place that you just have to see and experience yourself.  We walked along the river bed until we reached the source of the water in the wet season, and where the canyon gets its name.



On the Canyon Floor of Hell's Gate





Incredibly Hot Spring water that feeds "Hell's Kithcen"



According to our guide, the Masai named this area "Hell's Gate" because when the rains come, all of the water from the surrounding mountains flow through here creating flash floods.  Any animals standing in the rushing water's path would be swept up and carried down into the canyon below.  The Masai would then hear these animals screaming for their lives, trapped in the canyon, and later find them dead at at the mouth of the canyon.  They believed these beasts were the ones who were sacrificed below and returned to the surface.  Easy food I guess.  Simon definitely took us on the scenic route on the way back where we had to scramble down some of the sandstone cliffs.  Neither of us had ever done anything like this, I assume this is about as close as you could get to not needing a rope and harness to go hiking, it was a cross between trekking and rock climbing and we absolutely LOVED it.  On the way back we past by some thermal waters which were extremely hot.  Simon told us this was called Hell's Kitchen because the Masai actually used this heat to cook their food.  There was actually an area that was carved out into a ledge with several rounded out holes....making it easy to put the food there, and have it stay until cooked. This ranks as one of the top experiences since our arrival here in Kenya, we were both pleasantly surprised at how incredible this place is!   On the way out of the park, we finally got to experience a full on African downpour, we raced to the park gates and beat the heaviest part of this rainfall but ended up getting soaked regardless.  It was a nice gentle, warm rain and we welcomed it after a long strenuous day of travel, biking, and hiking.  

As a side note, Kenya has made the most of this natural resource, and has begun harvesting the thermal energy from the ground with plans to develop and expand geothermal energy.  Kenya is one of the leading countries in the world in this regard.

Above the Canyon looking at the central tower of Hell's Gate