Qualla: Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella National Park

Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella National Park: Introduction

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit GuoJunjun, CC BY-SA 3.0 no. The musk oxen arrived in 1947, ten calves shipped from Greenland to a mountain plateau where their kind had been extinct for thousands of years. It was an audacious experiment: reintroduce an Ice Age species to a landscape that still looked like the Ice Age. Nearly eight decades later, the experiment has succeeded almost too well. The shaggy, short-tempered animals now number in the hundreds across the Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella National Park, and they have become both the park's most iconic residents and its most dangerous. They do not flee from hikers. They form defensive circles. They charge. The 200-meter minimum distance rule is not a suggestion.

Image: GuoJunjun | CC BY-SA 3.0 no

Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella National Park: An Alpine Ark

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit ThartmannWiki, CC BY-SA 4.0. Established in 2002 to replace and greatly expand the original Dovrefjell National Park of 1974, Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella encompasses 1,693 square kilometers across three Norwegian counties: Innlandet, Trondelag, and More og Romsdal. When the surrounding landscape-protected and ...

Image: ThartmannWiki | CC BY-SA 4.0

Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella National Park: Snohetta's Domain

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bjoertvedt, CC BY-SA 3.0. The park's highest point is Snohetta, at 2,286 meters the dominant summit of the Dovrefjell range and once believed to be Norway's tallest mountain. That title eventually went to Galdhopiggen in Jotunheimen, but Snohetta remains one of the most challenging and rewarding climbs in...

Image: Bjoertvedt | CC BY-SA 3.0

Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella National Park: The Waterfall at Amotan

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bjoertvedt, CC BY-SA 3.0. At the park's northern edge, where Road 70 runs between Oppdal and Sunndalsora, the landscape delivers a spectacle that breaks from the plateau's usual restraint. The waterfall at Amotan plunges 156 meters into a canyon -- one of the most powerful single drops in Norway. It sits ...

Image: Bjoertvedt | CC BY-SA 3.0

Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella National Park: Managed by Mayors

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hans Gude, Public domain. Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella has an unusual governance model. The National Park Board consists of political representatives -- typically the mayors -- from the eight municipalities and four counties that the park spans. They are nominated locally and appointed by the Ministry for th...

Image: Hans Gude | Public domain