Poland's Other National Parks in the Order They Were Founded, From the Holy Cross Mountains in 1950 to Tuchola in 1996

Established in 1950, Świętokrzyski National Park is the earliest on this path. It covers about 76 square kilometers along the highest ridge of the Swietokrzyskie Mountains, taking in the peaks Lysica, at 612 meters the highest point of the range, and Lysa Gora, and it is administered from the town of Bodzentyn.

Ojcow National Park followed in 1956 about 16 kilometers north of Krakow. It began at roughly 14 square kilometers and has grown to about 21, which still makes it the smallest national park in Poland, yet it protects a Jurassic limestone karst landscape with more than 400 caves.

Founded in 1959 on the northwestern outskirts of Warsaw, Kampinos National Park is the second largest national park in Poland, at roughly 385 square kilometers. Its historic forest is mostly pine woodland broken by sand dunes and swamps, and it was named a UNESCO biosphere reserve in 2000.

Wolin National Park was established on 3 March 1960 on the island of Wolin in the northwest. Its roughly 109 square kilometers include Baltic sea cliffs and a European bison sanctuary, and its headquarters are in the town of Miedzyzdroje.

Roztocze National Park, established in 1974, covers about 85 square kilometers in the upper Wieprz river valley of southeastern Poland. It preserves the most ecologically valuable part of the middle section of the Roztocze upland, including strictly protected forest zones, and is run from the town of Zwierzyniec.

Gorce National Park dates from 1981 and covers about 70 square kilometers in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. It takes in the central and northeastern part of the Gorce Mountains, in the Western Beskids at the western end of the Carpathians, near the town of Nowy Targ.

Drawa National Park was established in 1990 across the borders of the Greater Poland, Lubusz and West Pomeranian Voivodeships. It began at about 87 square kilometers, was later enlarged to roughly 113, and protects part of the Drawsko Forest on the Drawsko Plain, named for the Drawa River and administered from the town of Drawno.

Also founded in 1990, Polesian National Park lies in the Lublin Voivodeship in the Polish part of the historical Polesia region, on the Leczna-Wlodawa Lakeland. It covers about 98 square kilometers of former peat bogs and wetlands of forests, lakes and marshes.

Table Mountains National Park, known in Polish as Stołowe Mountains National Park, was established in 1993 on the border with the Czech Republic. It protects the Polish section of the Stolowe Mountains in the Sudetes, about 63 square kilometers, most of it forested, with a smaller strictly protected core.

Magura National Park followed in 1995 in southeastern Poland near the Slovak border, straddling the Lesser Poland and Subcarpathian voivodeships. About 194 square kilometers, mostly forested, protect the upper basin of the Wisloka River and the low wooded ridges of the Beskid Niski, and the park is named for the Magura Watkowska massif.

The path ends with Tuchola Forest National Park, created on 1 July 1996 in Chojnice County in Pomeranian Voivodeship. It covers about 46 square kilometers of forests, lakes, meadows and peatlands within the Tuchola Forest, the largest continuous woodland in Poland.