Those who are adventurous enough can make their way up to the Loch Skeen. The picturesque views of the area surrounding the peaceful loch are worth the almost hour-long walk it takes to reach.

Grey Mare’s Tail, Scotland, UK by Leon Pettit

Within the park, you will also find an earthwork fortress that dates back to the Iron Age. Known as Tail Burnt, the old fort was built upon a hill that has become known over the years as the Giant’s Grave.

If you are really up for an adventure, then you will need to bring your hiking boots because the trip up the side of White Coomb is a treacherous one. You may need to make your way through a herd of wild goats that live along the slopes of the hill. But the adventure is worth the effort as you stand over Tail Burn Gorge and simply admire the beauty that is the Grey Mare’s Tail Nature Reserve.

Since not everyone is willing to take the long and tiring trek up to the top of White Coomb, there is a visitor’s center which comes complete with a CCTV system. From the center, you can watch over the nest of a Peregrine Falcon and even see the entire Tail Burn Gorge. Most of all is that the visitor center offers a state of the art interactive system that will help you to learn more about the nature preserve as well as its long and colorful past.

There’s a reason why so many people over the years have made their way to the Grey Mare’s Tail Nature Reserve. The picturesque views of the valley, gorge and loch are definitely one of the biggest reasons to visit the area. Enjoying a peaceful day in the wilderness and a chance to become closer with Mother Nature is another popular reason that so many have visited the park to date.

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Gran Paradiso National Park, Italy by Lexe-I

The Alpine ibex was a popular animal to hunt throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. As a result of this hunting, only 60 of them were said to have been left. People hunted the ibex for sport as well as for their various body parts. There is a cross-shaped bone that can be found in the ibex which has been used as a means of protecting people from dying a violent kind of death.

It was Victor Emmanuel who would first make steps to prevent the further decline of the ibex population. Set to become the king of Italy, Victor designated the area as the Royal Hunting Reserve of the Gran Paradiso back in 1856. Then in 1920, King Victor Emmanuel III set out to make the area the first nation’s park. Today there are more than 4,000 ibex living in the Gran Paradiso National Park.

Gran Paradiso National Park, Italy by SNappa2006

There are 57 glaciers in the Gran Paradiso National Park as the area includes more than 703 square kilometers of land. Some of the park is used today for agricultural purposes and much of it is for leisure. The Gran Paradiso Mountain stands 4,000 meters above sea level which makes it one of the tallest mountains in Italy. From its peak, you can see both the Matterhorn as well as Mont Blanc. When combined with the Vanoise National Park just across the border in France, you have the European Union’s largest protection area. The French park is also dedicated to the Alpine ibex.

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