On this journey I take you to the National Park of Gran Paradiso, located in the mountains of the Italian Alps.

Gran Paradiso National Park, located in the Graian Alps of northwestern Italy, is the country's oldest national park, established in 1922. It covers an area of approximately 710 square kilometers (274 square miles) across the regions of Piedmont and Aosta Valley. The park is named after Gran Paradiso, a 4,061-meter (13,323-foot) mountain that dominates the landscape.

The park was originally created to protect the Alpine ibex, which was on the brink of extinction due to hunting. Today, the ibex is a symbol of the park and thrives in its rugged terrain. Other notable wildlife includes the chamois, red foxes, marmots, and Eurasian badgers, golden eagles, bearded vultures, and various species of owls and woodpeckers.

The diverse habitats of Gran Paradiso National Park, ranging from alpine meadows to dense forests, support a rich variety of flora and fauna.  The park is also a popular destination for hikers and nature lovers, offering breathtaking landscapes, scenic trails, and opportunities for wildlife observation.

The journey ... to Gran Paradiso National Park!

This time we drove the 950 Km by car from Belgium to Italy, so Raf, Thomas and me we were able to take some extra gear with us.

After 12 hours of driving we arrived in our hotel. In the morning we went for a quick look in the mountains because the workshop was starting officially in the afternoon. 

We woke up before dawn and moved to a designated location within the park were we started our walk with snowshoes. The mountains were pretty steep and we had to clim around 2km before we found the first wildlife.

Most of the days we had breakfast at 7:00 am and left the hotel with the jeeps around 7:30 am so we arrived in the mountains around 08:15 am. Putting on our snow shoes and our equipment to go for our morning walk which took around 2 hours to reach the animals. The temperatures were ok, in the valley around -1° and on the mountains -6°.

Capturing a red fox is always nice and certainly when doing this in the snow.

During the walks we could also take some breathtaking photos of the landscape, while doing this we suddenly spotted the bearded vulture in all its beauty, with a wing size of our 3 meter this bird is amazing to see.

After sunset we drove back to the hotel for a nice dinner and some talking with the team about the pictures we took, because of the walking in the deep snow everybody was pretty tired so around 10:30pm everybody was already asleep for the next day.

But on every good story comes to an end, time to say goodbye to a nice groep of wildlife photographers,

A big thanks to Michele Bavassano and Just Explores for the nice adventure.

Snap shots

below some snapshots of out trip, thanks to Paul Beiboer for some of the snapshots