Anton Kröller made his fortune in shipping and mining. His wife, Helene Kröller-Müller, made an art collection. In 1909 he began buying up sandy heath northeast of Arnhem; by 1923 he had fenced 5,500 hectares, released mouflon sheep imported from Corsica, and commissioned the famous Dutch architect H.P. Berlage to design a hunting lodge - Jachthuis St. Hubertus - in the northern reaches. The estate was the kind of project a robber-baron pulls off when nothing else will satisfy: a private wilderness on the scale of a small nation. When the family fortune faltered in the 1930s, the Kröllers transferred the land and Helene's paintings to a foundation. Park and museum opened to the public in 1938. The foundation still runs the place, which is why entering costs euros and bicycles cost nothing.

The Kröller-Müller Museum sits in the middle of the forest like a secret. Helene began collecting Van Gogh in 1908, when his canvases were still affordable, and she did not stop. The museum holds the second-largest Van Gogh collection in the world - roughly 90 paintings and 180 drawings - surpassed only by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Beyond Van Gogh, the galleries hold Monet, Seurat, Picasso, and Mondrian. Outside, a 25-hectare sculpture garden runs through the trees, one of the largest in Europe, with works by Rodin, Henry Moore, Jean Dubuffet, and Marta Pan. The juxtaposition is the point: world-class modern art at the end of a forest path, reached on a free white bicycle, with red deer crossing the trail behind you.

Most of the Netherlands is famously flat and famously wet. The Veluwe is neither. The whole region was pushed up by glaciers during the Saalian ice age roughly 150,000 years ago, leaving sandy ridges that rain runs through rather than over. The park's highest point reaches only 110 meters above sea level, but for the Dutch this counts as topography. In the open patches, wind has shaped sand drifts that are among the largest active dunes in Europe - a small desert in the middle of one of the most densely populated countries on earth. Red deer, roe deer, mouflon, and wild boar move through pine and oak woods. The wild boar, in particular, deserve respect. Sows with piglets will charge.

Three entrances ring the park - Schaarsbergen near Arnhem, Otterlo to the west, Hoenderloo from Apeldoorn - and from any of them the rhythm is the same. Pay at the gate. Walk to the bicycle stand. Take whatever bike looks ridable. The internal road network is mostly closed to cars; the paths belong to cyclists and walkers. Marked hiking routes start at 3.5 kilometers; longer rides loop past the hunting lodge, the museum, and the visitor center known as Museonder, which puts the park's underground biology on display. Honey from the park's bees is sold in the shop. The campsite is the only place to sleep inside the fence, and reservations are not accepted - you turn up and hope.