SamuelHoge Veluwe national park is one of the hidden gems of Dutch nature scene, spanning over 55 sq km of stunning forest, savannah, sand dunes, and meadow, where plenty of deers and wild boars call home. It is criss-crossed by miles of hiking paths, biking trails, and paved roads, making it ideal to be explored however you want, be it walking, cyclying, or driving.
However, being in a cycling crazed country such as The Netherlands, the best way to explore this beautiful national park is definitely with your own pedalling power.
Besides the wonderful nature, a small museum of Kröller-Müller can be found sitting in the middle of the park. Despite its modest size, this world class museum houses some of the masterpieces from Vincent van Gogh.
In a late summer weekend, we cycled to Hoge Veluwe bringing our camping gear from a nearby town of Wageningen where we resided at that moment. It was a perfect weekend trip to the nature, in one of the best nature reserve this small country has to offer.
Getting there:
The park is located in the eastern province of Gelderland, a stone’s throw away from the province’s capital, Arnhem, to the south. Other nearby cities include Ede and Apeldoorn, to the west and north of the park, respectively.
There are three entrance points to the national park, namely Schaarsbergen to the south, Otterlo to the west, and Hoenderloo to the east. There are bus stops nearby each entrance, as shown in the map. The journey to the bus stops can be planned via 9292.nl.
Once arriving at the entrance and paying the entrance fee to the park, you are free to roam through the whole area. Don’t worry about having to walk long distance in the park, there are free rental bicylcles available throughout the area for those without their own transport.
The camp site is located near the Hoenderloo entrance, and you can only reserve a spot at the ticket office over there. So, if you arrive from another entrance and want to camp, be sure to reserve before the ticket office closes. Also note that the park is closed during the night and visitors should leave beforehand. More information can be found in the national park’s official website.
Cycling to Hoge Veluwe
One warm morning, with our bikes and camping gears ready, we started to head to the Schaarsbergen entrance. From our residence in Wageningen, the 20 km journey would take about an hour. The cool breeze upon our face during the ride there was nice a refreshing, a perfect prelude to the mini adventure we were about to embark on.
We took mostly the country road through the heart of rural Gelderland, including a nice route through the forest along the train track. Passing by the outskirt of the towns of Renkum and Wolfheze, we eventually cycled next to a fenced forest, indicating that we were right outside of the park. Just need to find the entrance at the end of this long fence.
When we got to the entrance, a dozen of other people were already there on their fancy bikes. We paid the entrance fee and proceeded into the park, through the main cycling path going right through the center of the park. Our aim was to immediately go to the camping site to drop our luggage and set up our tent.
To reach the camping site all the way at the Hoenderloo entrance, as simple as it sounds, we still needed to cross the entire park, cycling for at least another 15 km. I didn’t mind though doing that on a nice day and through the beatiful nature of Hoge Veluwe.
We set up our tent next to the trees under the shade. It was quite crowded on that day, although the area was quite spacious and the facility was quite good. Plenty of Dutch families around enjoying a nice weekend of good weather in the nature.
Exploring Hoge Veluwe
From the camp site, we headed back to the center of the national park to visit the Kröller-Müller museum. It was a nice break from cycling to look at paintings from van Gogh. There were also artworks from other artists, although honestly only van Gogh was beknowned to me.
The museum’s pretty park also houses bunch of sculptures, many of which look quite weird I have to say. Admittedly, we’ve never been much of art fans, and thus we could not really understand many of the objects exhibited at the museum. There was though one long staircase leading to the sky, offering us amazing view over the Hoge Veluwe area.
Afterwards, we went to the sand dunes area, which according to me offered the most beautiful scenery in Hoge Veluwe national park. The area was just one big open sand field and the cycling path treads on the outskirt of the mini desert. A lone dead tree stood there, surrounded by sand, making the scene all the more dramatic.
That summer had particularly been dry, and the savannah area close to the sand dunes had completely dried up, leaving brown bushes everywhere. It might not be how the park should look like, but with that scene you’d be forgiven to think that it was somewhere in the African savannah. Just add lion or giraffe and you’d instantly get Africa.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in those area, admiring the stunning view and soaking the sun while we could before autumn chill arrived. I started to wonder then why this Dutch national park is so underrated among foreign travelers.
On our way back to the camp site, we stumbled upon a small deer, which quite sadly was already surrounded by hordes of people trying to take a snap of the gentle creature minding its own business. I knew there were plenty of them hiding in the furthest reaches of the national park, away from the paths and trails. This one was rather unfortunate to wander to where the people were.
Anyway, it was a pleasant day of cycling through the nature and we’ve probably covered close to 50 km, enough to make me appreciate the comfort of slipping into my sleeping bag even more for a well deserved rest in the nature. I just hope there’d be no wild boar ramming onto our tent.
