Dovre National Park


Dovre National Park is a national park in Hedmark and Oppland, Norway, that was established in 2003. Dovre covers an area of 289 km² and the altitude varies from the tree line around 1000 meters to 1716 meters.
The park lies between the two larger and older parks Rondane to the southeast and Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella to the north. Its opening was part of the larger expansion of Rondane, when Rondane National Park was enlarged and smaller areas of nature protection were opened or enlarged.
Like Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella and Rondane, Dovre national park hosts wild Fennoscandian reindeer of Beringia origin.

The name

For the first element see > Dovre, the last element is fjell n 'fell, mountain'.
It is common to use the shortened form Dovre also for the large mountainous area around Dovrefjell.
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" is widely used in Norwegian.