Kalkalpen National Park

The Kalkalpen park was declared in 1997 over about two hundred and ten square kilometres of the Reichraminger Hintergebirge and the Sengsengebirge, and what it protects is chiefly forest - more than eighty per cent tree cover, the largest continuous forest area in Austria, with beech stands old enough that parts of it were added in 2017 to the UNESCO inscription covering ancient and primeval beech forests across Europe. Roads were pulled out of much of the interior after gazettement and the valleys left to revert. Lynx were reintroduced and are present in small numbers; the bird and beetle lists are long, with deadwood species that need forest left standing and falling on its own. Access is on foot or by bicycle along old forest roads, with the Hintergebirge valley the main route in.

What you actually see

• Austria's largest forest wilderness - over eighty per cent tree cover.
• Inscribed beech stands - part of the European primeval beech forest listing.
• Reverting valleys - roads removed and the interior left to itself.
• Deadwood species - the beetles, woodpeckers and fungi that need standing dead trees.

When to go

May to October. Two days.

Honest expectations

There are few facilities inside and distances are long - the interior is a full day's walk or cycle. Lynx are present but essentially never seen. Ticks are a real issue in the forest.

Nearby

Windischgarsten and Molln are the entry towns; the Gesäuse park is south-east.