Where nature reigns supreme the Swiss National Park, with its 80 kilometres of well-marked hiking trails, is more than a vast recreational area. As journalist and outdoors enthusiast Mary Krienke found out, the park serves to protect nature, foster scientific research and provide enlightening information to its guests. So lace up those boots, as we take a trip inside the Confederation's only national park.

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Where nature reigns supreme the Swiss National Park, with its 80 kilometres of well-marked hiking trails, is more than a vast recreational area. As journalist and outdoors enthusiast Mary Krienke found out, the park serves to protect nature, foster scientific research and provide enlightening information to its guests. So lace up those boots, as we take a trip inside the Confederation's only national park.

We have watched young marmots romp in the snow, following an unexpected summer snowfall; stumbled along root-marbled paths in the pre-dawn darkness, behind a telescope-toting guide, to catch a sight of the newly reintroduced bearded vulture; marvelled at massively antlered red deer silhouetted against the horizon; lost our way in a parched, "postapocalyptic" landscape of dead trees and slippery scree under leaden skies; and searched in vain for the elusive ibex.

Over the course of more than 25 years, m...

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