Dwingelderveld, Dwingeloo/Ruinen

Dwingelderveld National Park is a huge park situated in Drenthe, between Ruinen and Dwingeloo. It is so extensive that it is not possible to walk the whole area in one day, and for that reason we stayed for three nights in a holiday home site in Ruinen, in the Vacantiepark De Wiltzangh – an Ex-Europarcs location which is now privately owned. We hired a “Sterrenborg Lodge”, dog friendly and plenty of distance from other cabins. Highly recommended!

The reason we chose this place is because it is literally situated at the edge of the park and all the walks we did could be started straight out of the front door, but if you don’t want to make a mini-break then there are several parking areas dotted around the park, for example opposite the Theehuys Anserdennen is a fairly decent parking area.

We visited in late March which was warm and sunny enough to want some shade and water. In high summer the trees will provide even more shade than we had but a large part of the hiking area is open heathland, it’s one of the most impressive views of the park and for most walks, it is pretty much unavoidable to be walking along open heath at some point. I am sure you could adapt your walk to stick to the shade, but we all really enjoyed the novel scenery. We plan to revisit in September but my feeling is that this area is probably most enjoyable outside the summer season.

I am not going to list the exact walks we did because there are so many walks and variations of those walks that you can follow. We used a combination of Komoot and Outdoor Active to select our walks but there are also signs that can be followed, or simply follow your nose/dog.

Not all areas are off leash and these zones are clearly marked, the pink running-dog sign on posts is the off leash sign, and outside these signs your dog needs to be leashed. Some areas have grazing animals, we did not see any in March (just the warning signs) but these areas definitely require you to leash your dog whether the animals are there or not. But there are plenty of off leash areas for you to let your pup properly stretch his legs.

Some of the pathways are shared with cyclists or horses (or both). They are clearly marked with signs, and differences in the pathway make it obvious who belongs where. It’s quite well thought out. Just be sure to keep your pup on the right part of the path!

There are some raised walkways over some marshland. In March it was only wet in patches but I still did not want to let my dog squelch through at the side of the walkway. The raised walkway is covered with a heavy wire, presumably to make it less slippery when wet and my dog was fine walking over it. No snagged claws and he could not see enough through the planks to make him hesitant. And if you are walking with kids as well as dogs, then look out for some fantastic frogs in these areas!

We walked past at least two large lakes with beautiful clear water. There are plenty of other watery areas or smaller pools or mini canals along the way, even in some of the vast open plains there are water pools. Some are inaccessible and only there for the grazing animals, so bring some drinking water for your pup just in case the water you were aiming for on your map turns out to be on of these.

On one walk we came across an enormous radio telescope from Astron, and at the base there are boards with some interesting information about the telescope and its work.

We only saw two potential cafes on the whole weekend, and unfortunately in March, both of these were closed. So if you are walking off-season for the whole day then I suggest you bring your own coffee and lunch! There are plenty of open areas or picnic tables to stop at en route.

It is not easy to just select a few of the 100’s of photos we took, but these should whet your appetite: