Closed? Not in Norway!

It's autumn. The weather has been unusually mild. An excellent time to take that trip to catch the colorful scenery. Some may have made reservations long ago and looked forward with the whole family to visit a national park such as Yellowstone National Park featuring the famous geyser , a popular U.S.tourist attraction.

Just as they are prepared to leave for their journey, they hear the latest news. "Due to a political dispute, there will be a government shutdown for an unknown length of time", which includes the closing of all US National Parks. The United States has 59 protected areas known as national parks, which are operated by the National Park Service, an agency of the Department of the Interior. National parks must be established by an act of the United States Congress. The first national park, Yellowstone, was signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1872.

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That, being out of the question, perhaps a trip north to Alaska is in order. Near Seward on the Kenai Peninsula, there is the excellent and popular Harding Icefield with at least 38 glaciers and fjords stemming from it. The only area accessible to the public by road is Exit Glacier, while the rest can only be viewed by boat tours. This glacier has been in the news due to the rapidly melting ice.

But, once again, this site is closed at this time. It also is a US National park.


US National Parks have always been an attractive tourist destination. While the sites are protected and  park history is paramount, income from the annual  visiting tourists has been an important factor in  park maintainance.

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In contrast, protected areas in Norway are not entirely tourist-minded. Norway has 41 national parks, 34 on the mainland and seven on Svalbard. National parks are particularly important for species that need relatively large and undisturbed areas to survive, such as wild reindeer, predators and birds of prey. Many of these are at great risk from human intervention and some are even threatened with extinction. Norway has an international responsibility to look after endangered species and their habitats.The national parks safeguard the rich diversity of Norway's natural heritage, for nature's sake, for our own and for future generations.

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Nearly 85 per cent of Norway's national parks  are mountains. The mountain landscape varies from endless gently rolling high plateaus to sharp peaks, ravines and glaciers. One of which is DovreDoverfjell-

Sunndalsfjella National Park, one of Norway's top five protected sites.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.

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Another inaccessible and undeveloped national park in Norway is Børgefjell National Park (Norwegian: Børgefjell nasjonalpark) located close to the border of Sweden. All of Børgefjell is used for domestic reindeer grazing.The Sami people controlled the land in Børgefjell right up until the beginning of the twentieth century. They have kept reindeer in the area for at least 500 years.The first element seems to be the Old Norse word byrgi which means "fort" or "entrenchment". (There might have been some kind of  fort here once, possibly to claim tax from the southern Sami people, and also to protect the border from the Swedes!)The park is for the most part a reservation, with few trails or other facilities for visitors. Visitors can hike for extended periods without seeing another person. Not maintained for the tourist trade, but for the animals.

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However, there is a Norwegian National Park that welcomes tourists.

Hardangervidda National Park (Norwegian: Hardangervidda nasjonalpark), at 3,422 square kilometers, is

Norway's largest national park. It spans from Numedal and Uvdal in the east and Røvelseggi and Ullensvang in the west across the Hardanger mountain plateau .
 Designated as a national park in 1981,  it serves today as a popular tourist destination for activities such as hiking, climbing, fishing, and cross-country skiing. There is a comprehensive network of huts and paths across Hardangervidda.. Its wild reindeer herds are among the largest in the world. Several hundred nomadic stone age settlements have been found in the area, most likely related to the migration of the reindeer. Its wild reindeer herds are among the largest in the world, with some 15,000 animals recorded in 1996 and around 8,000 in 2008. They migrate across the plateau during the year.

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Another of Norway's top five parks is "The Home of the Giants"

The name Jotunheimen, or “Home of the Giants” is  recognized as one of the country's premier hiking and fishing regions.Jotunheimen has been the site of hunting since before recorded time. Remains of Stone Age hunting camps have been found near the lakes Gjende and Russvatnet. These remains extend through the bronze and Iron Age, up to recorded times. The high pastures have been used as seters for at least 1000 years.

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The first national park of Norway would welcome you to its high peaks and varied, wild and beautiful nature.

 

Rondane National Park in the fall

Rondane National Park is the oldest national park in Norway, established on 21 December 1962. The park contains ten peaks above 2,000 metres. After nearly a decade of planning, Rondane was established as the first Norwegian National Park on 21 December 1962. It was first established as a nature protection area, but was later named a national park. The main reasons for protecting the park were "to safeguard the natural environment with its native plants, animal life, and cultural heritage and also to secure the environment as a recreational area for future generations".

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And now, the newest National Park in Norway....

Not necessarily a "walk in the park" and probably not a great tourist attraction, however Færder National Park opened in August, the first only national park on the west coast of the outer Oslofjord. Part of Vestfold county's archipelago will, officially, in a few weeks, become Norway's next national park, according to The Minister of the Environment, Bård Vegar Solhjell.

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In contrast to US Parks, Norway's national parks are not primarily for tourists.

The National Park was established to
- preserve a large, continuous and essentially untouched mountain area,
- preserve an alpine ecosystem with its natural biodiversity,
- preserve an important part of the range of the stocks of wild reindeer in Snøhetta and Knutshø,
- safeguard a variation in habitats,
- preserve the landscape morphology and its distinctive geological deposits,
- protect cultural heritage.

And open for business!