She arrived in Rwanda in 1963 with no formal training in fieldwork, a borrowed camera and a conviction that the mountain gorillas disappearing into the Virunga forests deserved someone to fight for them. By the time Dian Fossey was murdered in her cabin on the slopes of Mount Karisimbi in December 1985, she had spent eighteen years doing exactly that, studying, protecting and refusing to be moved by the poachers, politicians and institutions that wanted her gone.
The gorillas are still here, in part because she was.
The trail to her grave is not a long walk. It is not technically demanding. But it is one of the most affecting things you can do in Rwanda, and possibly in East Africa, because every step of it is walked in the shadow of a story that changed the trajectory of an entire species.
The Story Behind the Trail
Fossey established the Karisoke Research Centre in 1967, setting up camp in the valley between Mount Karisimbi and Mount Bisoke, a name she formed by combining the two. The altitude was around 3,000 metres. The forest was dense, cold and frequently mist-covered. The gorillas she had come to study were terrified of humans, and it took months of patient, persistent presence before they would tolerate her proximity.
What she built over the following years was the most comprehensive study of mountain gorilla behaviour ever conducted. She habituated multiple gorilla families. She named the individuals, learned their social structures and documented their lives in a level of detail that transformed scientific understanding of the species. She also waged a relentless personal war against poaching, organising anti-poaching patrols, cutting snares, confronting traffickers and making enemies in the process.
When Digit, the silverback she had known since he was a juvenile, was killed by poachers in 1977, the story reached international headlines. The Digit Fund, which became the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, was born from that grief, and the wave of global attention it generated brought resources and pressure that changed conservation policy in Rwanda.
She was found dead in her cabin on December 27, 1985. The circumstances remain officially unsolved. She was 53.
She was buried at Karisoke, in the gorilla graveyard she had created for the animals she loved. Digit's grave is next to hers. Several other gorillas killed by poachers lie nearby. It is, by any measure, the resting place she would have chosen.
The Walk
The trail begins at Volcanoes National Park headquarters in Kinigi, where hikers register and meet their guide at 7 am before driving to the trailhead. Groups are capped at eight people per day, small enough that the walk never feels like a tour. The actual trek starts around 8 am at the foothills of Mount Bisoke, winding through bamboo forest before climbing into the Hagenia-Hypericum forest zone at between 2,900 and 3,000 metres altitude.
The walk takes between two and four hours round-trip, depending on pace and fitness level. The terrain is moderate, there are steep sections, and the path is frequently muddy, particularly in the wet season. Walking sticks are available at the park headquarters and are worth using. The altitude is noticeable, and the air is cool enough that layers are necessary even on clear mornings.
The forest itself is extraordinary. Giant lobelias push up through the undergrowth. Moss covers everything. Albertine Rift endemic birds move through the canopy in ways that reward anyone who stops to look up. Golden monkeys occasionally appear in the bamboo section fast, bright, and entirely unbothered by your presence. If you encounter gorillas on the trail, which sometimes happens, you may observe them briefly but cannot photograph them, as you are not on a gorilla trekking permit.
The Karisoke Research Centre site sits at around 3,000 metres. The original structures are gone, and what remains is a clearing in the forest where the remnants of Fossey's camp can still be found, the foundations of the cabin where she lived and worked, the outlines of buildings that held decades of research. The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund continues conservation work in the area today, monitoring more than twenty gorilla groups across the Virunga Massif using drones for population counts and field vets who treat injuries from snares and inter-group conflicts. The science Fossey started in a cold, mist-covered clearing in 1967 is still running.
The Graveyard
The trail culminates at the gorilla graveyard, a quiet, forested clearing where the graves of dozens of gorillas killed by poachers are marked by simple headstones. Fossey's grave is among them, close to Digit's. There is no monument, no grand memorial. Just the forest, the altitude and the particular stillness of a place where someone chose to be buried among the animals she gave her life for.
Most people go quiet here. The guides often say very little. There is nothing useful to add.
The Fossey Trail and Gorilla Trekking — How They Fit Together
The Fossey Trail permit costs $75 per person, considerably less than the $1,500 gorilla trekking permit. They are different experiences, and experienced Rwanda travellers recommend doing the Fossey Trail first. Walking to Karisoke before your gorilla trek gives the encounter an additional layer of meaning. Meeting a silverback in the forest becomes a different experience when you have already stood at the grave of the person most responsible for the fact that that silverback is still alive. Space them a day apart if possible. The legs need it, and so does the mind.
Practical Information
Permits are booked through the Rwanda Development Board, either online or through tour operators. Booking is recommended, particularly during peak dry season months, June to September and December to February. The trail runs year-round, though the dry season offers the easiest conditions underfoot.
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What to bring: waterproof hiking boots, long trousers, a rain jacket, light gloves, insect repellent, water and snacks. Walking sticks are provided at the trailhead at no extra charge. A level of reasonable fitness is required the altitude and terrain make it moderately challenging, and the return is uphill from Karisoke. The minimum age is 15.
The Dian Fossey Trail
Most walks in Volcanoes National Park are about what you see. This one is about what you understand by the time you come back down. Rwanda's conservation story, the gorillas, the recovery, the international attention that protects them runs directly through a cabin in the Virunga forest, where a woman refused to leave until someone made her.
At GoExplore Safaris, we build the Fossey Trail into Rwanda itineraries for travellers who want more than a sighting of the permit, the right guide, and enough time in the park to let the full story settle. Some walks change the way you see a place. This one changes the way you see the animals.
