Dinsho is the front door of Bale Mountains National Park, a small highland settlement at around three thousand metres where the park headquarters and visitor centre sit among juniper trees and open meadow. If you want to see the animals that the Bale Mountains are famous for without a long hike, this is the easiest place to start. Within a short distance of the headquarters you can often spot mountain nyala, a large spiral-horned antelope found only in Ethiopia, grazing in the clearings, and Menelik's bushbuck, warthogs and troops of colobus monkeys in the woods.
The ride in from Goba or Dodola is a pleasant highland run, with the road passing through farmland, grassy plains and patches of Hagenia and juniper woodland. Surfaces are generally acceptable but traffic, including livestock, is unpredictable. The altitude brings cold mornings, frost on the grass in the dry season, and the sort of clear, sharp light that makes the mountains look closer than they are. Bring warm gloves.
This is the Afroalpine world, and the Bale Mountains are among the most important pieces of it. The park protects the largest area of Afroalpine habitat on the continent, home to a startling number of species found nowhere else, including the Ethiopian wolf, the rarest canid in Africa. The wolves are mostly seen on the high plateau, above Dinsho, so you will have to keep going to find them, but the headquarters area is a good start for birdwatching, with Rouget's rail, wattled ibis and many endemic species. The park staff and local guides know where animals have been seen recently.
Practical needs are modest. Dinsho is small, with a few simple cafés and guesthouses, and fuel is better sourced in Goba, about twenty-three kilometres away, which is the nearest larger town with services. The park charges entry fees, usually payable at the gate, and walking tours with scouts can be arranged here. Fill up in Goba before heading to higher ground.