The nation of Greenland only has one national park...but when a park has this many superlatives, one is probably enough. The world's largest national park covers more territory than all but 30 entire countries on the planet, and features dramatic scenery and abundant wildlife. However, due to its relative inaccessibility, it is not a national park in the traditional sense, and a visit to Greenland National Park requires plenty of advance planning.

So, just how big is the largest national park on Earth?

A Hundred Yellowstones

It's hard for us to visualize 375,000 square miles, so here are a few points of reference: That's an area about 28 times larger than the biggest national park in the U. S. system (Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve) or more than 100 times larger than Yellowstone National Park. Another measure: the park is about the same size as France and Spain...combined.

Official descriptions of the park include terms like "arctic paradise," and the area certainly offers stunning scenery and an impressive variety of wildlife.

Walrus. Photo by Magnus Elander and Visit_Greenland.

Land mammals found in the park include walrus, polar bear, reindeer, mountain hare, arctic fox, and'”along the coast'”perhaps 40 percent of the world's population of musk oxen. Whales, including humpback, minke and fin, are abundant.

Wildlife Far Outnumbers Humans In This Park

It's certainly no exaggeration to say the park has more animals than humans. The nation's official travel website, Greenland.com, notes that "Apart from the personnel at a couple of meteorological stations and the Danish Armed Forces surveillance unit, the elite Sirius Patrol, no people live in the area. The only people who have regular access to the area are sealers and whalers from Ittoqqortoormiit, a town in North-Eastern Greenland." 

A pair of musk oxen in summer. Photo by Magnus Elander and Visit_Greenland.

Due to the abundant wildlife and archeological resources from former coastal settlements, most travel to the park is connected with international scientific surveys and expeditions to the region. Most of the other visitors to the park come via "an expedition cruise," and independent travel to the area, which is unusual, requires a permit, obtained well in advance.

Spring in Ittoqortoormiit. Photo by Ingrid Ortlieb and Visit_Greenland. 

An Different Kind Of Park Gateway Community

The "gateway town" to the park certainly bears no resemblance to similar cities in American parks, and Ittoqqortoormiit is definitely not a Gatlinburg or West Yellowstone.This community with a population of about 450 people is described by Greenland.com as "The most isolated town in Greenland, where dog sledding, expedition cruises and wildlife dominate the opportunities for adventure.... Just getting to Ittoqqortoormiit is in itself an adventure, as the town is almost as far as it can get from any other inhabited area in Greenland."

Ittoqqortoormiit's harbor is ice-bound about nine months of the year, and until recent years, the community's primary sources of income were from fishing and hunting, but tourism is beginning to assume a growing role. It's possible to arrange guided trips into the margins of the park by dog sled or snowmobile, although most visits are via small ships during the short summer season. 

(Dogsledding in North-east Greenland. Photo by Magnus Elander and Visit_Greenland.

Experiencing The "Big Arctic Five"

Even the scenery in the vast national park claims superlatives, including "the world's largest and deepest multi-branched fjord system." Those who venture to Greenland may come in hopes of experiencing the "Big Arctic Five": "Dogsledding, Northern Lights, Ice & Snow, Pioneering Culture, and Whales." You'll find all five are featured in this short video.

Greenland itself is the world's largest island, and its northernmost point, Cape Morris Jesup, is only 740 km from the North Pole. The southernmost point, Cape Farewell, lies at about the same latitude as Oslo, Norway, and about 85 % of the island is covered by the icecap. Greenland is "officially designated a self-governing overseas administrative division of Denmark."

Interested in a trip to Greenland National Park, or other locations in the country? Virtually all travel to Greenland is by air, and goes through Iceland and Reykjavik domestic airport, then to one of the main gateways: Kangerlussuaq (Søndre Strønfjord) in the West or Narsarsuaq in the South.  There are no roads connecting the towns, all of which are along the coast, so internal travel in the country is via fixed-wing planes, helicopters or (during the summer for northern locations) by sea.

Even getting around within Greenland can be an adventure. Photo by 11Arne Fleischer2 and Visit_Greenland.

The country's primary airline, Air Greenland, notes that getting to the park's gateway town of Ittoqqortoormiit is "Serviced by helicopter. Fly from [the main gateway airport at] Kangerlussuaq to Nerlerit Inaat; from Nerlerit Inaat there is a connecting helicopter flight to Ittoqqortoormiit, which takes 15 minutes."

It doesn't take long to realize that merely pronouncing local place names in Greenland will be a major challenge for most Americans, just one more reason that anyone planning a visit to this unusual national park will find it much easier to do so via an arranged tour!

You'll find some helpful travel information on these websites for East Greenland and Greenland.com. For almost all of us who'll never have the chance to experience this distant land first-hand, those sites also include some striking photos of this dramatic landscape. This certainly isn't Kansas, Dorothy...or even Yellowstone!