Hohe Tauern National Park
The Hohe Tauern National Park is Austria’s biggest national park and encompasses large sections of the so-called “Main Central-Alpine Ridge" in the Eastern Alps. The park also includes a region where several of Austria’s most important rivers have their origin - these include the Salzach, Möll and Mur rivers. The Hohe Tauern National Park was founded in 1981 and extends out over an area of 1,800 square kilometres in the provinces of Tyrol, Salzburg and Carinthia. The Gastein Valley lies in the Salzburg portion of the National Park.
Excursion Destinations near Gastein
With Gastein as your base, the Hohe Tauern National Park offer several rewarding excursion destinations. The Grossglockner, for example, which lies in the core zone of the National Park - and the famous Grossglockner High-Alpine Road which leads you straight towards this imposing mountain, revealing before your eyes the Pasterze Glacier and one of the most dramatic landscapes in the entire country. Not without reason is the Grossglockner High-Alpine Road one of the most popular tourism destinations in all of Austria. Alongside the road, information boards and several smaller museums will introduce you to the history, nature and culture which flank the “Glockner Road".
And the nature of the Hohe Tauern National Park is quite impressive as well. While people have left their mark on the outer areas of the park for centuries, the core zone has remained essentially untouched. The core zone is governed by strict conservation laws and serves as a refuge for thousands of plant and animal species, many of which can be found only rarely, if at all, anywhere else. Even those species which are threatened by extinction have managed to “put down roots" in the Hohe Tauern National Park and even achieve sustainable populations.
Due to strict conservation measures, tourism in the National Park region is very “gentle" and always takes into account the natural setting. The wide range of tourism opportunities encompasses tours and excursions led by mountain and nature guides, hikes and numerous other sports that cause no damage to nature itself. In 2006, the Hohe Tauern National Park was officially recognised as a national park by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
