A vast, treeless mountain plateau in central Norway, crowned by glacier-capped Snøhetta and roamed by wild reindeer and the only musk oxen in mainland Europe.
Dovrefjell is not a town but a great mountain barrier in central Norway — the age-old dividing line between southern Norway around Oslo and the Trøndelag country to the north. For a thousand years travellers crossed it on the pilgrim road to Trondheim, sheltering at mountain lodges like Kongsvold. In 1814 Norway's founding fathers swore to remain "united and loyal until Dovre falls," making the massif a national symbol. No one lives up on the plateau; today it is protected parkland where wild reindeer and mainland Europe's only wild musk oxen roam beneath glacier-capped Snøhetta.
Picture a rolling, almost treeless tableland lifted more than a thousand metres into the sky, where snow lingers in the hollows into July. This is Dovrefjell — tundra, heath and marsh strewn with the gravel ridges that melting glaciers left behind. Above it rises Snøhetta, "the snow cap," a glacier-streaked peak of 2,286 metres that Norwegians long believed was their country's highest, until surveyors found the taller mountains of Jotunheimen to the south. Climbers first reached its top in 1798; it is still a favourite long day-hike. The lime-rich eastern slopes grow some of the rarest wildflowers in northern Europe.
The open ground is really a wildlife stage. Dovrefjell shelters the last truly wild mountain reindeer in Europe — herds descended from the animals that followed the retreating ice north long ago, and the main reason the area is protected. Sharing the plateau are its most famous residents, the musk oxen: shaggy, ice-age beasts that had vanished from Norway and were shipped back from Greenland in 1932. The venture nearly failed more than once — the first herd was wiped out in the Second World War — yet today about 300 graze near the hamlet of Hjerkinn, the only wild musk oxen on the European mainland. Guided "musk-ox safaris" to find them are the signature outing; arctic foxes den here too.
People have crossed this barrier for as long as there has been a Norway. Medieval pilgrims trudged over it toward the great shrine at Trondheim, and around 1120 King Eystein — a ruler remembered for building things rather than fighting — set up manned lodges so travellers would not freeze on the pass. One grew into Kongsvold Fjeldstue, an inn still serving guests in the valley below, now beside a garden of mountain plants. At Hjerkinn a striking timber-and-steel viewing pavilion, opened in 2011, frames the peak for visitors, and a huge former army firing range nearby was closed in 2008 and returned to the wild — fitting for the mountain Norwegians swore never to abandon.
The making of Dovrefjell
Snøhetta
The glacier-streaked crown of Dovrefjell at 2,286 m — long believed to be Norway's highest peak, and still its classic summit hike.
The musk oxen
Shaggy ice-age survivors brought from Greenland in 1932 — about 300 now roam near Hjerkinn, the only wild herd in mainland Europe.
Viewpoint Snøhetta
An award-winning timber-and-steel viewing pavilion of 2011 at Hjerkinn, framing the massif and Europe's last wild reindeer range.
Kongsvold Fjeldstue
A historic mountain inn on the old pilgrim road, its hospitality traced to King Eystein's 12th-century lodges — now beside an arctic-alpine garden.
Dovrefjell–Sunndalsfjella National Park
The 1,830 km² reserve, created in 2002, that guards the wild reindeer, musk oxen, arctic fox and the massif's rare alpine flowers.
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"United and loyal until Dovre falls"
The oath Norway's founders swore at Eidsvoll in 1814, turning this mountain into a lasting symbol of national unity.
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