Kampinos National Park

Kampinos National Park starts barely 30 kilometres northwest of central Warsaw and protects 38.500 hectares of pine and birch forest, inland sand dunes, marshes and meadows along the Vistula. It was designated in 1959 and recognised as a UNESCO biosphere reserve in 2000, making it one of the few national parks anywhere bordering a city of over a million. The signature feature is the field of parabolic sand dunes left by post-glacial winds, now grown over with pine. Roughly 50 moose, descendants of animals that wandered in from Belarus, share the park with wild boar, beavers, lynx and more than 200 bird species. Trails lead to Frederic Chopin's birth house at Zelazowa Wola on the park edge and to cemeteries from the 1939 Battle of the Bzura. In summer city bus 708 runs from Warsaw to the Truskaw trailhead.