Dovre National Park

Squeezed in between Rondane and Dovrefjell, this is the quiet one of the three parks. It runs from the E6 over Dovrefjell in the north down to Grimsdalen in the south, almost all of it above the tree line, with wide plateaus and rounded tops reaching just over 1.700 m. The ice left its marks everywhere: old meltwater channels, dead-ice hollows and long gravel ridges, and up by Veslehjerkinn some of the southernmost palsa mires in Norway. The rock is rich, so the flowers are too, among them the Dovre poppy and the Dovre dandelion. The park was set up in 2003 and covers 289 km², mainly to tie together the land the wild reindeer need, from Sunndalsfjella to Ringebufjellet. When the men at Eidsvoll swore in 1814 to stand "until Dovre falls", they meant the whole mountain range, but this is part of it.

Local knowledge: people have followed the reindeer here for close to 6.000 years. By the Tverråa river, just east of Grimsdalshytta, there is a trapping system with nearly 30 pitfall traps, probably from the Stone Age. Below the hut lie four big Viking grave mounds, and even though they were robbed long ago, arrowheads, swords and jewellery have been found in them. The hut itself came later. When the Dovre railway opened in 1921 the number of hikers shot up, so DNT put up a prefab hut here in the winter of 1922–23. Its first manager, Rønnaug Bjørnsgaard from Dovre, ran it until 1945, and in 1925 a cowshed was added so the guests could have fresh milk.

Visiting: leave the E6 at Dovre and follow the signs to Grimsdalen, about 25 km to Grimsdalshytta. The last 20 km is a toll road, so pay online before you lose mobile coverage. From Østerdalen you can come via Atndalen and turn off at Fallet. The road is only open by car in summer. From the car park at the hut a marked trail crosses the park to Gautåseter, and other marked routes go to Hjerkinn, Dørålseter and Høvringen. E-bikes are not allowed, dogs must be kept on a lead in the summer half of the year, and if you see wild reindeer, stop and give them plenty of room. More on the park's official page.