Norway: Tverrfjellhytta, Norwegian Wild Reindeer Pavilion
Highlight of the trip was seeing this beautiful building, Snøhetta's Norwegian Wild Reindeer Pavilion.
This building graced the background of my studio computer for several years when I was in college. It, to me, epitomizes the intersection of man and nature, something that truly fascinates me. This building was the initial spark to my interest in Scandinavia.
The Norwegian Wild Reindeer Pavilion sits in the Dovrefjell National Park, overlooking (quite conveniently) the Snøhetta Mountain, the highest mountain in the region at 2,286m. Once a military ammunition range, this area is now being restored and returned to nature. Old mines, roads and buildings are being removed to make way for the last remaining population of wild Fennoscandian reindeer and other regional wildlife.
We had initially planned to get an early start to the day and hike up Snøhetta, but scattered rain showers deterred that plan. Instead we took the day slow and spent a lot of time at the pavilion. Arriving at the site, we hiked up a 1.5km path to the pavilion, which sits at the top of a hill overlooking the Dovrefjell Mountains. Once we reached the top of the hill, I definitely didn't regret skipping out on the mountain hike! Quite the workout after 3 long hikes earlier in the week.
The pavilion was absolutely breathtaking upon first sight. This isn't because of its beauty, but because I spent so much time admiring it from a computer screen, I never imagined that I would be in its very humble presence. Like other Norwegian architecture, it balances being totally at home in the mountains while also being a completely foreign object in the landscape. It met all of my expectations.
We spent about 2 hours in the pavilion talking to this totally bad ass woman working there that shared so much information with us about the area and the wildlife. There were telescopes and binoculars set up from which we watched musk oxen sleeping in the light patches of grass.
