Norway's National Parks in the Order They Were Founded, From Borgefjell in 1963 to Ostmarka in 2023

Established in 1963, the earliest founding on this path. It was enlarged in 1973 and 2003 and now covers 1,447 square kilometers on the border of Trondelag and Nordland counties, along the Swedish frontier. It is described as undeveloped, with few trails, and it shelters rare Arctic foxes alongside wolverines, lynx and brown bears.

Created by royal decree in 1970 and enlarged in 2004 to 134 square kilometers on the island of Senja in Troms county. Its granite bedrock carries coastal pine forest that includes trees more than 600 years old, which makes it a park about old forest on an island coast.

Established on 22 January 1971 and only 171 square kilometers, it still matters for what lies across the border. With Sweden's Padjelanta National Park it forms part of one of the largest connected protected areas in Europe, about 5,400 square kilometers, and holds two large lakes, Storskogvatnet and Litlverivatnet, beside glaciers in the southeast.

Established on 9 July 1971 in Malselv Municipality, Troms county. Its zones climb from pine forest through mountain birch to alpine tundra between roughly 300 and 1,600 meters, and it hosts all four of Norway's mainland large predators: brown bear, wolf, wolverine and lynx. Its valley is the second-driest in the country.

The first Svalbard park on this path, established by royal resolution on 1 June 1973 on the island of Prins Karls Forland. It protects 616 square kilometers of land and 4,031 of sea, and is recognized for the world's most northerly range of seals and the world's most northerly population of common guillemot.

Established in 1981 over 3,422 square kilometers of the Hardanger mountain plateau, at an average elevation of 1,100 meters. It forms Europe's largest peneplain, an eroded upland of treeless moorland, and supports some of the world's largest wild reindeer herds, around 8,000 animals.

Established by royal decree on 28 November 1986 over 803 square kilometers in Nordreisa Municipality, Troms county. The Reisa river carved the long valley Reisadalen and a canyon north of Imo, and the park includes the 269 meter waterfall Mollisfossen.

Designated by royal decree in 1989 across six municipalities of Nordland county, with about 2,102 square kilometers inside the park. The Svartisen glacier, Scandinavia's second largest at about 370 square kilometers, dominates the southwest, and traditional Sami reindeer herding continues within the park.

Established on 25 October 1991 to protect Jostedalsbreen, the largest glacier on the European mainland. Of the park's 1,310 square kilometers, about 800 are glacier ice, with Lodalskapa the highest peak at 2,083 meters, and the Briksdalsbreen glacier arm draws more than 300,000 visitors a year.

Established on 3 May 2002 as a larger successor to the original 1974 Dovrefjell National Park. Its 1,693 square kilometers rise to Snohetta at 2,286 meters, and musk oxen introduced in 1947 live here alongside wild reindeer and wolverines.

Established in 2003 over 289 square kilometers of plateau and rounded mountain peaks. It sits between the larger Rondane and Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella parks, and its main aim was to safeguard a habitat corridor for Norway's wild reindeer.

Established on 9 January 2004 over 682 square kilometers in Saltdal and Fauske municipalities, along the Swedish border. It is especially notable for botanical diversity, sheltering several plant species found nowhere else in Norway or at the southern edge of their range.

Established by royal resolution on 17 December 2004 over 333 square kilometers in Trondelag county. Its highest point, Hestkjoltopp, reaches 1,390 meters, and large swamps and open woodland shaped in the last ice age support lynx, wolverines, bears and the uncommon Arctic fox.

Established on 29 April 2005 and opened by Queen Sonja that May. The 545.2 square kilometer park centers on three glaciers that together form Norway's third-largest ice cap, and the region receives about 5,500 millimeters of precipitation a year, making it one of the wettest in the country.

Established on 9 September 2005, the smallest national park on Svalbard at 1,127 square kilometers. It protects the inner reaches of Wijdefjorden, the longest fjord on Svalbard at 108 kilometers, and contains Europe's only High Arctic steppe ecosystem.

Established by the government on 22 December 2006 over 450 square kilometers. It protects the Hallingskarv plateau and the Vargebreen glacier, rising to 1,933 meters at Folarskardnuten, and wild reindeer habitat was what drove the park's creation.

Established on 5 February 2010 and covering about 417 square kilometers on a peninsula between the Sorfolda and Saltfjorden fjords. Karst cave systems lie among its peaks, and archaeological finds show human settlement going back 8,000 to 9,000 years.

Established on 11 March 2011 over about 537 square kilometers near Lillehammer, as a major extension of the older Ormtjernkampen National Park, which dated from 1968. With adjoining nature reserves and landscape protection areas it forms a combined protected region of more than 1,000 square kilometers.

Established on 24 April 2012 and the smallest national park on this path at about 82.5 square kilometers in Trysil Municipality. It lies along the Norway and Sweden border and adjoins the Swedish Fulufjallet National Park across the boundary.

Established on 23 August 2013, a marine park of about 340 square kilometers, roughly 325 of them water, in Vestfold county. It protects the archipelago east of Notteroy and Tjome, including the Faerder Lighthouse and the ruins of the older Store Faerder Lighthouse, and borders Ytre Hvaler National Park.

Established on 16 December 2016 over about 607 square kilometers in Agder county, all but 8 of them marine. It is named for the long moraine ridge left by a retreating glacier about 12,000 years ago, and its offshore waters hold kelp forests and eelgrass beds.

Established on 22 June 2018 and opened on 9 June 2019, covering about 99 square kilometers of southern Moskenesoya in the Lofoten archipelago. Its highest summit, Hermannsdalstinden, reaches 1,029 meters, and the park shelters endangered seabirds such as black guillemots and European shags.

The newest stop, established on 10 November 2023 southeast of Oslo. About 71 square kilometers in total, with a roughly 54 square kilometer national park core, it protects pockets of old-growth forest close to the capital and is one of the few large national parks located immediately outside a national capital.