Hohe Tauern National Park is the largest national park in Austria and in the entire Alps - over 1800 km² of wild high-mountain terrain spanning Salzburg, Tyrol and Carinthia. It's home to Austria's highest peaks, Grossglockner (3798 m) and Grossvenediger (3657 m), surrounded by roughly 130 km² of glacier fields.

Shaped by past ice ages, the park's landscape features deep valleys with dramatic headwalls, massive alluvial fans, alpine meadows and heathlands, and forests of larch, spruce and Swiss stone pine. In summer, flower-filled alpine pastures and glacier views dominate; autumn brings fiery colours to the dwarf shrub heaths; winter transforms the high peaks into a stark snow-covered wilderness that can last up to eight months. The sunnier southern slopes host warmth-loving species absent from the shadier north side.

How to get there

• The park is crossed by the Grossglockner High Alpine Road (Grossglockner-Hochalpenstraße), one of the busiest scenic mountain roads in the Alps, leading to the Franz-Josefs-Höhe viewpoint
• Popular gateway towns include Krimml (Krimml Waterfalls), Matrei in Osttirol (Innergschlöß glacier trail) and Heiligenblut near Grossglockner

Practical information

• The park has open access with no barriers or prohibition signs - visitors are trusted to respect nature responsibly
• The strictly protected core zone includes the Grossglockner and Grossvenediger summits
• The Sulzbachtäler valleys in Salzburg hold IUCN Category Ib Wilderness Area status
• The Gamsgrube special protection area below Fuscherkarkopf contains a rare wind-blown sand steppe, home to the endemic Rudolph's saxifrage

It's the only place in the entire Alps with a regular occurring population of griffon vultures, and since 1986 the bearded vulture has been successfully reintroduced here after being wiped out in the region.