Jostedalsbreen-Nationalpark

Jostedalsbreen National Park (Norwegian Jostedalsbreen nasjonalpark ) is a 1310 km ² national park in Norway. The park is located in the province of Sogn og Fjordane, and belongs to the municipalities of Balestrand, Luster, Sogndal, Forde, Jølster, Gloppen and Stryn, he also borders the Nigardsbreen nature reserve.

Founded in the park in 1991 to protect the local, largely untouched, large glacial landscape with its flora and fauna. The National Park is the Jostedalsbreen, which is the largest glacier on the European mainland.

Geography, landscape and geology

The national park is between 300 and 2,000 moh moh. Around the glacier there is a characteristic glacial landscape with U-shaped valleys, moraines, ground smooth mountains, boulders, etc.. The result is this. Due to the growth and the movements of the glacier

The largest rivers are the Strynevassdraget and Loenvassdraget. The highest mountains in the national park are the Høgste Breakulen ( 1952 moh. ) And the Lodalskåpa ( 2083 moh. ).

Flora and Fauna

In the valleys, at the foot of the glacier tongues, there is a great diversity of plants and animals. The glacier itself is of this biodiversity almost nothing left. One of the few residents there is the snow bunting.

They are in the areas above the tree line most common plants, in addition to some grasses, Glacier Buttercup, Gämsheide, Purple saxifrage, Three Handles Liges chickweed and Alpenschmiele.

Heritage

By 1923, there were a few centuries a (commercial ) way over the glacier, which ran from east to west. At the ends of glaciers is therefore also found numerous remains of farms and cottages.

The first tourist who has visited the glacier, probably was the English author William Cecil Slingsby and climbers, which several times visited the region in 1880. A crossing by the mountaineers Friedrich Eckstein and Aichinger 1886 describes in detail Ludwig Hevesi. He also mentions a voraufgegangene migration of the Viennese mathematician Oskar Simony there

Tourism and Management

In addition to numerous hiking trails in the national park, there is also the tourist cabins Flatbrehytta, Bødalssetra and Vetledalssetra.

Museums

There are three museums in the National Park:

• The Breheimsenteret in Jostedal at Gaupne
• The Jostedalsbreen Nasjonalparksenter in Stryn and
• Norsk Bremuseum in Sogndal.