Qualla: Hohe Tauern National Park

Hohe Tauern National Park: Introduction

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Bearded Vulture disappeared from the Alps. Hunted to extinction by the early twentieth century, this massive raptor with its three-meter wingspan and rust-stained breast feathers was gone -- until a breeding program in the Hohe Tauern brought it back. The reintroduction, which began in 1986 with the first releases in the Hohe Tauern, is one of Europe's great conservation stories, and it happened here because here is where the Alps still feel unfinished. The Hohe Tauern National Park, Austria's largest and one of Europe's biggest, sprawls across 1,856 square kilometers of the central Alpine range, spanning the provinces of Salzburg, Tyrol, and Carinthia. Within its boundaries stand 266 mountain peaks, 250 glaciers, and the country's two highest summits. It is a place where ice is still carving rock.

Hohe Tauern National Park: The Roof of Austria

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Grossglockner rises to 3,798 meters above sea level, the highest point in Austria. Nearby, the Grossvenediger reaches 3,657 meters, its summit sheathed in glacier ice. These are not gentle mountains. The park's core zone -- where ecosystem preservation takes absolute priority...

Hohe Tauern National Park: A Century in the Making

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The idea for the park predates either World War. In 1913, Salzburg provincial parliamentarian August Prinzinger and Carinthian lumber trader Albert Wirth convinced the Austrian national parks association to designate a protected region in the Hohe Tauern -- a remarkable act of fo...

Hohe Tauern National Park: Where a Third of Austria's Flora Grows

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The park's elevation range -- from valley floors to glacial summits -- creates an extraordinary compression of habitats. A third of all plant species native to Austria grow within its boundaries. Edelweiss clings to limestone ledges. Wolf Lichen encrusts boulders at the tree line...

Hohe Tauern National Park: Wings Over the Ridgeline

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Beyond the Bearded Vulture, the park shelters Golden Eagles, Ibex, Chamois, and Marmots -- species that define the Alpine ecosystem. The Ibex was itself nearly lost; its populations across the Alps dwindled to a few hundred animals in the Gran Paradiso range of Italy before conse...