Isalo National Park, Madagascar

Isalo National Park is the most visited national park of Madagascar. As Madagascar isn’t very touristic, this biggest tourist attraction sees ‘only’ 3o.000 visitors a year. In comparison; over 6 million people visit the Grand Canyon in the United States each year. There are several walking routes you can take at Isalo, from 1,5 hours up to the whole day or even a whole week. I recommend you get a guide in any case. He’ll know the way and is probably better at spotting animals.
Isalo National Park isn’t mostly known for its wildlife but for its landscape. You’ll see canyons, rivers, waterfalls and valleys. That being said, you can find some wonderful animals at Isalo. On this page I’m sharing my most favorite pictures of our trip to Isalo National Park.

We saw two chameleons during our first hike in Isalo. More than half of all chameleon species worldwide that are alive today live in Madagascar, so it’s a great country for spotting chameleons!

This chameleon was less lucky, as it got eaten by this snake. You can still see the green tail coming out of the mouth of the snake. And if you look further down the body of the snake, you see the shape of the chameleon there.

Can you spot the animal in this picture? This is why you need a guide in Isalo and all other national parks. If it weren’t for our guide we would simply walk by this bush. But he pointed out the, quite big, walking stick. Do you see it now? You can find it starting in the center of the picture going down to the bottom right corner.

Isalo National Park is mostly known for its canyons. You’ll see some beautiful sandstone cliffs, plateaus and canyons. Even on a short hike you can already see this amazing landscape.

It’s difficult to capture the canyon on a photograph. Somehow a picture doesn’t truly show the overwhelming nature. Nevertheless, this plateau is a perfect picture spot and you don’t even need to walk very long to get here. We parked at the parking lot close to the town Ranohira and within an hour we reached this spot.

You can find several waterfalls and natural pools in Isalo National Park. So wear your swimming clothes or take them with you so that you can take a swim.

You can also spot some ring-tailed lemurs in Isalo National Park. The ring-tailed lemurs are probably the most popular lemurs, especially since the Dreamworks movie ‘Madagascar’ where King Julien was a ring-tailed lemur. Lemurs don’t live anywhere else in the world, you can only find them on the island Madagascar.