The escarpment falls steeply through some 1 968 feet to the Zambezi River valley floor and offers magnificent views towards Lake Kariba, 24.8 miles north. Rivers such as the Mcheni and Lwizikululu have cut almost sheer gorges in the escarpment. The park's north-eastern extremity is marked by Tundazi, a mountain on which, according to local legend, resides an immense serpent.
The heart of Chizarira consists mainly of lightly wooded, rolling terrain broken by ranges of hills. The southern boundary is marked by the Busi River which is flanked by floodplains supporting Acacia albida woodlands. The park has a highly mobile elephant population, thought to reach 1 000 or more in the dry season when animals move in from the surrounding areas to take advantage of Chizarira's plentiful water supply.
Elephant damage to woodlands reached alarming proportions in the late 1960s, when the park was lightly manned. Although regular culling has taken place in recent years, the woodlands have still not fully recovered. The buffalo population exceeds 1 000, with herds numbering between 200 and 400 animals.
One of the park's most important species is the tsessebe, of which there are probably over 500 individuals. Roan have been seen in groups of up to 15. Sable are well distributed throughout the Brachystegia woodlands. Zebra, kudu, reedbuck, waterbuck, bushbuck, impala, klipspringer, duiker and grysbok all occur in satisfactory numbers.
Herds of about 30 eland appear briefly before moving on and there are possibly 200 in the park at any one time. Chizarira holds a significant population of black rhinoceros, present throughout the park.
The park sometimes suffers badly from poaching but this has been reduced by providing occupants of the neighbouring communal lands with cheap meat from elephant culls. The proceeds from hunting safaris, which are returned to local District Councils, have also contributed to the reduction of poaching.
Chizarira was gazetted as a non-hunting reserve in 1938 and as a game reserve in 1963; it attained full National Park status under the Parks and Wild Life Act (1975). The park headquarters are at Manzituba.
There is no accommodation in the park other than campsites, and a four-wheel-drive vehicle is required to negotiate the network of viewing tracks. Permission to enter the park must be gained from the Department of National Parks provincial warden at the Victoria Falls.