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the simien trave bea utifu l skyli n es in Afri ca , Spectacular gorges slash through grassy highlands dotted with giant lobelia flowers and chasms fall to jagged rock hundreds of feet below. In the lowlands, a Martian like land- sca pe of dark-ora nge rock format ions st retches to the horizon, and the sandstone pinnacles and mesas of this area have been compared to the Grand Canyon. And if you tire of the lowlands, you can climb as high as the 15,400-foot summit of Ras Deshen, Ethiopia's highest mountain, Since rented mules and solid boots provide the only reliable trans- Et hi opia's Simien Mou ntai ns are a wi ld and iso lat- ed ranqe of peaks that rewa rd t rekke rs with a uniqu e loca l culture , some of the rarest anima ls in th e world and one of the most dramati c and port in this area and many visitors have been scared away by the recently ended war with nearby Er itrea, you may feel like you have this place of stun- ning beauty all to yourself, You won't be alone, however, Not only do park authorities require foreign hikers take a guide and an armed scout as defense against poachers, but you'll pass through the farming communities of the Amhara, a group that has assimilated African, Judaic and Egyptian influences to form one of the most unusual and self-contained cultures on Earth, Some of the wildlife is found nowhere else on the planet. If you're lucky, you'll see the Eth iopian wolf [an animal so rare it has its own genus], the walia ibex [a mountain-dwelling goat of which perhaps only 200 exist] and the gelada baboon [whose golden mane earns it the name "lion monkey"J. "The baboons were really curious about us, " says American Jenn Bleyer, who hiked the Trave rse last year, "until they saw the AK-47 that one of our guides was carrying and then they screamed and scattered away as fast as they could," [The baboons were supposedly used as target practice by the competing forces during the 3D-year civil war.] In 1978, the Ethiopian government declared the Simien massif a national park and promised to relocate the local population to protect endangered animal species. In practice, however, it has done little to fol - low up on this promise, and bio logists fear that encroaching farmland will push the rarer animals to extinction . Park fees and tourism are helping to preserve the Simiens, but hiking there is still a rough affa ir and trekkers should be self-sufficient as they explore the wild landsca pe.