Dovre National Park ( no, Dovre nasjonalpark) is a

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

Innlandet Innlandet is a county in Norway. It was created on 1 January 2020 with the merger of the old counties of Oppland and Hedmark (the municipalities of Jevnaker and Lunner were transferred to the neighboring county of Viken on the same date). The ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. The park was established in 2003. The park covers an area of and the altitude varies from the

tree line The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snowp ...

at about up to its highest point at Fokstuhøe at . The area consists of plateaus and weathered, rounded mountain peaks. The park lies between the two larger and older parks

Rondane National Park Rondane National Park ( no, Rondane nasjonalpark) is the oldest national park in Norway, having been established on 21 December 1962. The park is located in Innlandet county, in the municipalities of Dovre, Folldal, Sel, Nord-Fron, Sør-Fron, Stor ...

to the southeast and Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella National Park to the north. Its opening was part of the larger expansion of parks in the area and its purpose was to protect the area between the two parks. Like Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella and

Rondane Rondane National Park ( no, Rondane nasjonalpark) is the oldest national park in Norway, having been established on 21 December 1962. The park is located in Innlandet county, in the municipalities of Dovre, Folldal, Sel, Nord-Fron, Sør-Fron, Stor ...

, Dovre national park hosts wild Fennoscandian

reindeer Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...

of Beringia origin. Part of the reason for the existence of these three adjacent parks is to provide a large contiguous habitat area for the native wild reindeer population.

Name

The park is named after the municipality of

Dovre Dovre is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Dovre. Other villages in Dovre include Dombås and Hjerkinn. The ...

. For the meaning of the name, see Dovre#Name. It is common to use the name ''Dovre'' also for the large mountainous area of

Dovrefjell Dovrefjell is a mountain range in Central Norway that forms a natural barrier between Eastern Norway and Trøndelag. The mountain range is located in Innlandet, Møre og Romsdal, and Trøndelag counties in Norway. As a result of its central loca ...

which is also known as the

Dovre region Dovrefjell is a mountain range in Central Norway that forms a natural barrier between Eastern Norway and Trøndelag. The mountain range is located in Innlandet, Møre og Romsdal, and Trøndelag counties in Norway. As a result of its central loca ...

. From the oldest times has Dovrefjell been the border region between the northern and southern parts of Norway, and the road over the mountain was well known. The expression "til Dovre faller" ('until the Dovre mountains fall apart' = until the end of the world) is widely used in Norwegian.

Ecotourist

In recent decades, tourism has also begun to be seen as a source of economic stability for the country. Norwegian sites are promoting natural destinations on the world market in order to attract more tourists and thus increase the benefits of tourism in the country. This means that many of the nature destinations that were previously closed to the public are now available. However, Norway pays a lot of attention to nature and is looking for ways to achieve sustainable tourism. Dovre-Sunndalsfjella National Park is one of the largest protected areas in Norway. Therefore, in order to apply ecological tourism, and to protect the park's fauna and vegetation. Norway decided to set some rules for tourists in the park so that activities such as camping, berry and mushroom picking, hunting, trapping and angling are possible, but with agreement, on specially marked routes on the tourist map of the area. Organised tours must have a special permit to operate in the national park. The only exception is traditional trekking activity carried out by tourist associations, schools, kindergartens, non-profit organisations and associations.

References

National parks of Norway Protected areas established in 2003 Protected areas of Innlandet Tourist attractions in Innlandet Dovre Folldal 2003 establishments in Norway {{Europe-protected-area-stub

Name

Ecotourist

See also

References