Norway’s 48 national parks protect what Europe looked like before humans began to reshape it.

Norway’s 48 national parks are like an open book of Earth’s history — places where glaciers still breathe, mountains carry memories millions of years old, and nature continues to live by its own rules.
They encompass a wide spectrum of habitats, geological structures, and climate zones — from lowland forests to high-mountain and Arctic landscapes.
These parks were not created for tourism, but to preserve intact ecological processes, biological diversity, and a unique geological and cultural heritage.

1. Sør-Spitsbergen — 13 286 km²
2. Nordvest-Spitsbergen  — 9500 km²
3. Forlandet  — 4500 km²
4. Sassen–Bünsow Land  — 3900 km²
5. Nordre Isfjorden  — 3700 km²
6. Hardangervidda — 3422 km²
7. Van Mijenfjorden  — 3000 km²
8. Saltfjellet–Svartisen — 2192 km²
9. Reinheimen — 1969 km²
10. Blåfjella–Skjækerfjella — 1932 km²
11. Dovrefjell–Sunndalsfjella — 1830 km²
12. Varangerhalvøya — 1804 km²
13. Breheimen — 1691 km²
14. Børgefjell — 1447 km²
15. Anárjohka — 1414 km²
16. Jostedalsbreen — 1314 km²
17. Jotunheimen — 1151 km²
18. Lomsdal–Visten — 1102 km²
19. Forollhogna — 1061 km²
20. Indre Wijdefjorden  — 1100 km²
21. Rondane — 963 km²
22. Stabbursdalen — 747 km²
23. Øvre Dividal — 770 km²
24. Reisa — 806 km²
25. Junkerdal — 682 km²
26. Raet — 607 km²
27. Femundsmarka — 573 km²
28. Rohkunborri — 556 km²
29. Folgefonna — 545 km²
30. Langsua — 537 km²
31. Hallingskarvet — 450 km²
32. Skarvan og Roltdalen — 441 km²
33. Sjunkhatten — 417 km²
34. Ytre Hvaler — 354 km²
35. Færder — 340 km²
36. Lierne — 333 km²
37. Seiland — 316 km²
38. Dovre — 289 km²
39. Láhko — 188 km²
40. Rago — 171 km²
41. Ånderdalen — 135 km²
42. Øvre Pasvik — 119 km²
43. Jomfruland — 117 km²
44. Lofotodden — 99 km²
45. Fulufjellet — 82 km²
46. Østmarka — 54 km²
47. Møysalen — 51 km²
48. Gutulia — 23 km²

1. Sør-Spitsbergen, with its 5,030 square kilometers of land area, is the largest national park in Norway.
The marine area covers 8,198 square km, giving a total protected area of 13,282 square km.
The most important polar bear migration route between Storfjorden and western Spitsbergen passes through this area.

2. Nordvest-Spitsbergen. The Troll and Jotun hot springs in the park are the northernmost documented terrestrial hot springs on Earth at almost 80 degrees north latitude.

3. Forlandet — one of the most important walrus colony areas in Svalbard.

4. The mountain Templet lies within Sassen–Bünsow Land National Park. It was named for its resemblance to cathedral or temple ruins. The mountain rises to 766 metres and consists of eroded, horizontal layers of shale, silicate rocks, and limestone.

5. Nordre Isfjorden. Virgohamna – a small bay on the island of Danskøya, world-famous as the place from which S. A. Andrée began his tragic balloon expedition toward the North Pole on 11 July 1897. Svenskhuset – the oldest preserved building on Spitsbergen, built in 1872 at Isfjorden (Kapp Thordsen), known for the Svenskhuset tragedy, in which 17 men died during the winter of 1872–1873 — one of the most important cultural-historical sites in Svalbard.

6. Hardangervidda – The largest mountain plateau in Europe.

7. Van Mijenfjorden. Nordenskiöld Land is known for fossils of ichthyosaurs, ammonites, cephalopods, and plants preserved in rocks from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, documenting an ancient marine ecosystem, represented among other features by mountains such as Fossilfjellet.

8. Saltfjellet–Svartisen known for its spectacular deep blue ice, caused by compact ice without air bubbles. Svartisen is Norway’s second-largest glacier. Its name comes from the characteristic deep blue color of the ice. The Arctic Circle crosses the glacier, and Svartisen is the lowest-lying glacier on the European mainland.

9. Reinheimen. The largest wilderness area without major infrastructure in Southern Norway. Trollveggen is known as one of Europe’s highest vertical rock faces. Reinheimen forms part of one of the last large wild reindeer areas in Europe.

10. Blåfjella–Skjækerfjella. Within the national park there are many South Sámi cultural heritage sites. The area has been used for reindeer herding for more than 500 years and remains a very important region for South Sámi reindeer husbandry.

11. Dovrefjell–Sunndalsfjella The musk ox — the only population in Norway. Børgefjell Norway’s second national park, characterized by mountain desert and tundra. It is among the least developed national parks, with minimal infrastructure.

12. Varangerhalvøya Located in Finnmark, Varangerhalvøya is a world-famous hub for Arctic bird migration, especially known for its dramatic bird cliffs (such as Hornøya) that host tens of thousands of seabirds. Characterized by Arctic tundra.

13. Breheimen contains both some of the wettest and some of the driest areas in Norway. It stands out as one of Norway’s most diverse national parks. The area is known for unique glacier-archaeological discoveries, where melting glaciers have revealed artifacts from the Stone Age and the Viking Age — including arrows, skis, bow parts, clothing, and hunting equipment, some of which are up to 6,000 years old.

14. Børgefjell is a refuge for the Arctic fox — a true remote wilderness where hikers can walk for days without encountering another person. Home to the endangered Arctic fox, which has one of its best habitats in Norway precisely here.

15. Anárjohka forms part of an important core area for brown bears in Norway and belongs to a larger Norwegian–Finnish bear population. A characteristic species of the national park is the red-backed vole, which in Norway is found only in Finnmark.

16. Jostedalsbreen The largest glacier in continental Europe.

17. Jotunheimen home to the highest mountains in Northern Europe.

18. Lomsdal–Visten an unexplored wilderness without trails. A “white territory” on maps — Norway’s most unexplored valley, literally areas left blank on maps. Often described as Norway’s most mysterious national park, an area that science has not yet fully mapped. One of Norway’s least explored national parks, characterized by untouched wilderness.

19. Forollhogna A calcium-rich bedrock provides excellent conditions for plant and animal life. There is a network of trails and summer farm roads around the edges of the national park, well suited for cycling and hiking. All four species of mountain ducks found in Norway breed here.

20. Indre Wijdefjorden the inner parts of the fjord receive some of the lowest precipitation in the Svalbard archipelago. This area contains Europe’s only High Arctic steppe.

21. Rondane The first protected tundra area and Norway’s first national park. Rondane hosts one of the few remaining original European wild reindeer populations, with minimal genetic mixing from domesticated reindeer, historically found in southern Norway.

22. Stabbursdalen home to the world’s northernmost pine forest.

23. Øvre Dividal. All of the “four large predators” (brown bear, wolf, wolverine, and lynx) are present in the park, which is particularly known for having the densest wolverine population in Norway.

24. Reisa. Reisadalen In the southeastern part of the valley, the landscape is flat with extensive wetlands and long moraine ridges. A particularly unusual feature is a granite bench sloping across the valley floor. Over time, the river has also carved some of Norway’s largest giant potholes, including a unique double pothole with a natural granite bridge, the only one of its kind in Norway.

25. Junkerdal .The national park has very high biodiversity, especially within botanical diversity.

26. Raet is an end moraine — a glacial marginal deposit left behind when the great Scandinavian ice sheet retreated 11,000–12,000 years ago. In the national park, traces of the last Ice Age are clearly visible along the beaches and throughout the archipelago. Here you can find long pebble beaches, polished bedrock with giant potholes, and glacial striations.

27. Femundsmarka home to most species of freshwater fish found in Norway. The wolverine has a permanent presence, and the brown bear is an almost annual visitor. In Femundsmarka, all living and dead wood is protected, in order to preserve species that depend on deadwood at various stages of decomposition. Covering more than 8,000 square kilometers, the park is a true canoeing paradise.

28. Rohkunborri. The Arctic Trail, stretching from Sulitjelma to Kautokeino, passes through the national park and goes past the Lappjord cabins in the Sørdalen valley, operated by the Norwegian Trekking Association (DNT).

29. Folgefonna located on a peninsula along the Hardangerfjord, Folgefonna National Park contains Norway’s third-largest glacier. The park features diverse natural landscapes, including fjords and mountains, turquoise meltwater and blue ice. The summit of Folgefonna is one of the wettest places in Norway.

30. Langsua. A low-mountain landscape preserving a traditional mountain grazing system. Livestock grazing has shaped large parts of the protected area and contributed to an exceptional diversity of plants, animals, and birds. The only occurrences of the bearded bellflower (skjeggklokke) in Northern Europe are found in open, sunlit areas of Langsua.

Ormtjernkampen was once Norway’s smallest national park (approximately 9 km²), an important old-growth forest area in Vestre Gausdal, but in 2011 it was incorporated into the larger Langsua National Park.

31. Hallingskarvet. A mountain ridge approximately 35 kilometers long. The high-mountain plateau is part of the Caledonian mountain range.

32. Skarvan og Roltdalen. The greatest botanical value lies in the old-growth–like spruce forest in Roltdalen. Here, massive trees support a rich diversity of mosses, lichens, and fungi. Within the national park, millstone quarries are found lined up one after another.

33. Sjunkhatten known as “The Children’s National Park”, located in Nordland’s most densely populated area, close to both Bodø and Fauske. Nearly 50 percent of children and young people in Nordland county live near the park. The protected area also has an exceptionally high density of caves and is considered one of the most important karst cave areas in Norway.

34. Ytre Hvaler Norway’s first marine national park, home to unique cold-water coral reefs, especially the massive Tisler Reef, one of the world’s largest inshore coral reefs, formed by the white deep-water coral (Lophelia). These reefs, lying at depths between 74 and 160 m, are more than 8,000 years old and support a rich diversity of life entirely without sunlight, unlike tropical coral reefs.

35. Færder home to many rare and threatened plant species. The national park can be divided into the outer archipelago, middle archipelago, and inner archipelago.

36. Lierne known as the municipality in Norway with the highest number of brown bears. The park features a distinctive Ice Age landscape with rogen moraines. Large, wide-ranging species such as brown bear, wolverine, and lynx find excellent living conditions in Lierne National Park.

37. Seiland located along the Finnmark coast, Seiland has Norway’s northernmost alpine glaciers. Nowhere else in Scandinavia have glaciers formed at such a low elevation above sea level.

38. Dovre most of Norway’s alpine plant species can be found here. The park contains Norway’s southernmost areas of permafrost and is dominated by high mountain terrain between 1,200 and 1,600 above sea level. It is home to undisturbed wild reindeer, wolverine, Arctic fox, golden eagle, and a rich birdlife. Some consider Dovre to be an even more important conservation area for wild reindeer than the neighboring Dovrefjell–Sunndalsfjella National Park.

39 Láhko Norway’s largest continuous area of alpine karst. Láhko features a unique karst landscape that gives rise to a wide range of remarkable landforms and geological phenomena.

40. Rago Large boulders, deep gorges, and small cliffs create a uniquely remote and almost lost atmosphere within the park.

41. Ånderdalen represents the diversity of Northern Norway’s coastal landscapes. Known for a unique transition from coastal pine forest and rich wetlands to mountainous terrain.

42. Øvre Pasvik home to Norway’s largest untouched pine forest, forming the northwestern corner of the Siberian taiga.

43. Jomfruland is one of the places in Norway where the highest number of bird species has been recorded, making it a paradise for birdwatchers. The island is also known for its unique, long pebble beaches. Jomfruland A marine national park, with 98 percent of the park consisting of sea and seabed. The landscape has been shaped by glaciers.

44. Lofotodden characterized by a unique landscape of tall, narrow mountain peaks surrounded by open ocean, a rare natural phenomenon on a global scale. Lofoten became ice-free early after the last Ice Age, and as a result, Norway’s mountain flora may have its oldest occurrences in Lofoten.

45. Fulufjellet the acidic sandstone that dominates the bedrock of the park results in low biological diversity.

Fulufjellet National Park is directly connected to Fulufjället National Park on the Swedish side. Njupeskär, at 93 m, is Sweden’s highest waterfalls. Notably, the world’s oldest known tree, 9,550 years old, is found in the Swedish national park. In Göljådalen, traces can be seen of the the most rain disaster in 1000 years, when more than 400 mm of rain fell within 12 hours in August 1997.

46. Østmarka Norway’s newest national park, characterized by rolling ridges and shallow valleys. With many small hills and knolls, Østmarka allows for long walks without meeting other people, even though the area can be quite popular.

47. Møysalen defined by fjords and coastal-alpine landforms. A mountain area in close proximity to the coast. The otter is the largest predator and is quite common in the fjords surrounding the park.

48. Gutulia the national park of silver-grey dry pines and scattered ancient spruces. Here stand giant spruce and pine trees that have lived for several hundred years. It is Norway’s smallest national park (23 km²). All four large predators — brown bear, wolf, wolverine, and lynx — are known to pass through Gutulia.