Queen Elizabeth covers 2,056 square kilometres of western Uganda between lakes Edward and George, and was gazetted in 1952. The landscape is more varied than most savanna parks: explosion craters in the north, open grassland in the centre, and forest along the Kyambura Gorge.
The Kazinga Channel, a natural waterway linking the two lakes, is the park’s signature. A boat cruise along it passes some of the densest hippo concentrations in Africa, along with buffalo, elephant coming down to drink, and exceptional water birds.
In the southern Ishasha sector, lions habitually rest in the branches of large fig trees — a behaviour shared with only a handful of populations worldwide, including Lake Manyara in Tanzania. The park also offers chimpanzee tracking in Kyambura Gorge.