Höhe Tauern National Park

Zell am See & Kaprun
The Salzburgerland
Austria

Type: National Park
Addmission Fee: At last count, the fee was Euro 26 per car per day; a fee as stunning as the landscape to which it opens access

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Central Europe’s largest national park has as its centerpiece the 3,798-m Grossglockner, Austria’s highest peak. The immense territory under the national park’s watchful care appears positively primeval, with jutting bare mountains, murky glacial run-offs, plus acres and acres of ice. In fact, approximately one-tenth of the enormous park is covered year-round in ice, a glacier bed some 30 m deep – and thickening at a rate of approximately one millimeter per year. Visitors to this high-altitude wonderland are treated to what many consider Europe’s finest nature preserve, and it’s hard to argue. A habitat for Alpine species such as ibex, marmots, and the rare white-bearded vulture, the park also protects diverse flora that rebound each spring in a riot of color. Herds of mountain cattle call the park their summer home, too, and Alpine farmers use traditional techniques just as they have in centuries past. Two park attractions merit particular attention: First, the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse, covered here; second, lovely Krimmler Falls, covered on page 128. Although the Höhe Tauern National Park can be accessed via several roads – and via several hundred footpaths – the most popular route through the park remains the spectacular Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse, or “Grossglockner High Alpine road” (otherwise labeled state road 107). The road runs south from Bruck and winds its way up past the lovely village of Fusch to the park entrance, where daytrippers pay an enormous fee for the privilege of driving in. Information in hand, visitors zigzag upwards in the shadow of the alowering mountain. Along the road are visitors’ centers, museums, lookout points, cafés, and nature trails – all worthwhile. Everyone should visit the Pasterze Glacier and heartier folk should venture backcountry to one of the park’s high Alpine huts. (Consult a ranger for trail and weather conditions.) Once outside of the park’s border, the road continues south toward Lienz and Italy.